Flower Among Men
by Vilutski
Summary: Karin is the only daughter of a leader of freedom fighters and the only woman in the freedom fighters. How can she live in the group consisted of young men of her age? Will she find love? Will her father let her find love among his men? HitsuKarin, AU
1. Chapter 1

**Full summary:** **Karin is the only daughter of a leader of freedom fighters and the only woman in the freedom fighters. How can she live in the group consisted of young men of her age? Will she find love? Will her father let her find love among his men?**

**HitsuKarin Au, huge amounts of OCCness, especially from a certain character (you'll know who I mean once he makes his appearance)**

**The inspiration for this came from Rave Master where there is a group of freedom fighters with only one girl among them. Only that idea will be from Rave Master, the story is completely mine**

**So a Disclaimer for that: I don't own Rave Master.**

**Ichigo will be in this fic, but he is not Karin's brother, only one of the guys in freedom fighters. I'm not sure will Isshin be in this story at all. Probably not. So as you can guess from that, he isn't Karin's father.**

**Unlike my other story, 'Three things', this won't be told from anyone's point of view. Only closer looks on someone's feelings are the diary texts.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach**

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Karin was stomping across the secret village where the freedom fighters lived, angrier than ever seen. She was literally burning with anger. Every single guy knew to make path for her. That they had learned years ago.

Another good clue to avoid her was the fact she was wearing only a towel, water dripping from her midnight black hair that barely reached her tanned shoulders. When almost naked girl is stomping through a village someone is in deep shit.

Karin was 19, young, pretty and headstrong. Everyone in the village knew her well, to some she was like a sister, to some she was a friend and to surprisingly many she was a secret crush. Since, excluding Karin's father, the leader of freedom fighters, everybody was almost same age. The oldest was 25 and youngest 16. Everyone called Karin's father 'Dad' since he had raised all of them.

The boys were all orphans, some because of war, some because of deceases and some because they were just abandoned. Karin's father hated to see a crying child, so he had raised them all. For some odd reason, he had only found boys. Girls were usually adopted to be a pair of helping hands with the housework, something boys usually weren't able to do.

Karin finally reached the canteen, place where a certain duo usually hung out. That certain duo was the one in deep shit.

She slammed the door open and every single pair of eyes in the room was immediately fixated on her. There was another reason for the many crushed on her than the fact she was the only girl. She was in a good condition, since she was also one of the freedom fighters, and she was extremely well developed as a woman.

Several young men were looking for something to use to stop their noses from bleeding, some just didn't care.

Karin took a long look around the room, spotting a duo with bright colored heads. She glared at them and walked straight to the table to duo was sitting. Both were failing to hold their sniggering. The other people on the same table were also covering their grins with their hands.

A total of six men were sitting around the round table, five of them always in trouble and known for it, all of them grinning widely, and the last one in their group, the most silent one just staring at the approaching storming girl. He was the only one not grinning, but he was known for his control over his expressions, so inside his head he just might have been grinning as widely as the rest of the group.

All of the men had always been friends, mostly because of their similar attitude and tendency to get in trouble for being stupid. This didn't apply for the most silent one; he seemed to just follow the five around, always a little bored. But in the end he was the one who always saved the rest of the groups asses.

The biggest problem magnets were sitting closest to Karin. They had turned their chairs around to smirk at the girl.

On left was a carrot-top, Ichigo, shorter of the problem-duo, and also the one with shorter temper. Despite his looks and idiot smirk, he was always the brains behind their tricks. He was most likely the second smartest in the group.

He was wearing a typical out fit for him: loose blue jeans with a lot of pockets and chains, a wide belt, white t-shirt with a red print on it and a light blue jacket with a beige stripe around the chest. On the left side of the jacket was a black, skull-like print. He had blue sunglasses and black wrist bands as accessories.

Next to him was a bald man, Ikkaku. He was known for even shorter temper than Ichigo's, especially when someone was commenting his hair (or the lack of it). He always carried around a sword on his belt.

He was wearing a tight pair of black jeans and a tight white top, which embraced his muscular chest and stomach just perfectly. He had two red tattoos on the side of his each eye.

On other side was a blond man, Shinji. His hair was cut in a bob haircut, but because of some odd reason (maybe the shape of his face) it looked good on him. He was also a smart one in the group, but still lost to Ichigo. He also had a really creepy sense of humor.

He wasn't wearing his usual long grey coat but still had the newsboy hat on. He had a white t-shirt and a loose black tie, matching his black jeans. Although not seen, he also had a piercing in his tongue.

Next was a bit flamboyant and self-centered man, Yumichika. He too had a bob haircut, though many had said his earlier a bit longer hairstyle fit his black hair better. He had four feather-like things, two in his right eyelashes and two in right eyebrow. He was probably the most oddest of the group, always talking about how things must be done in a beautiful way.

He was wearing a pink (yes, pink) t-shirt with a frill on the front and a pair of white jeans.

Other man of the terrible duo was on the other side of Yumichika. He was known by his tribal tattoos all over his body which extent only Karin wasn't familiar with and bright red hair usually kept in a ponytail behind his head. He was the one usually executing Ichigo's bright ideas.

He was wearing loose gray pants with a huge red chain and a purple jacket with a white fur-like collar. Under it he had a white t-shirt with black writing on it. Around his neck he had a skull necklace and around his head was a purple bandanna with a red tiger in it.

The quietest person of the group was sitting on a windowsill behind the rest of the group. His teal eyes were half closed and he obviously knew the reason the rest of the men were grinning and found it childish. Which it probably was. His white gravity-defying hair swayed in the air flow from the open window. He was the shortest of the group, just a little bit taller than Karin.

He was wearing a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans with a long forest green coat hanging from his shoulders. Around his neck he had a necklace with a dragonhead-like silvery thing hanging from the almost blackened silver chain. His name was Toushiro.

Karin stopped in front of the table and placed her hands on her hips, hoping that the towel would not fall. She glared the two men with so much anger that warier men would have backed away. Not those two. They just kept grinning.

"You two! Give me back my clothes or I'll swear you'll face more painful death than you're able to imagine!" Karin commanded, causing the duo to burst out into an uncontrollable laughter. Some of the men in the canteen did the same, some decided that now was a good time to make the distance between themselves and Karin a lot longer.

"You have no proof it was us", Ichigo told between his giggles. Karin growled angrily.

"I have much proof it was you! You left a note, idiots!" she yelled, making Yumichika cover his ears. Karin was not known to be a quiet girl. She was just the opposite. If she didn't like someone, everybody in the village knew it.

Karin threw a note she had held in her fist to the table. It said 'Ichigo and Renji were here' in a bit unstable hand writing. Toushiro rolled his eyes.

"We have been framed! When have we ever done something like stealing some ones clothes?" Renji asked holding his stomach, causing a huge amount of snort from around the canteen.

"Give me back my clothes, NOW!" Karin said sternly, clearly not amused. Suddenly she felt a light tug on the towel. She quickly turned her head around to spot the youngest in their village, Jinta, who was a huge fan of the troublemakers in front of Karin.

Karin lifted her hand to grasp the towel, but was a little too late. It fell to the ground, causing an enormous amount of wolf-whistles as she stood naked in the canteen. She shut her eyes, teeth clenched together, hands in tight fists. Signs a smarter guy took as a cue to leave.

"You'll pay for this", she growled and spun around landing a strong punch on Ichigo's cheek. He practically flew from his chair, hitting the wall and falling unconscious to the floor. The canteen was suddenly very quiet and many of the watchers decided to get far, _far _away from the canteen. Jinta was the first one out.

Karin didn't care about it. She lifted her right feet from the round and moved the leg swiftly through the air, hitting Renji's face straight on. He flew from his chair to the opposite direction than Ichigo had flown.

Ikkaku, Yumichika, Shinji and Toushiro were all staring at the girl in front of them, eyes wide. Unfortunately said eyes leaved her face and moved a bit lower, which was something Karin didn't like.

She smiled darkly and cracked her knuckles.

"You're all so dead", she announced before jumping on the table. From there it was easy for her to kick Ikkaku in the shin, so hard he fell over, and hit Yumichika in the head with an elbow. His eyes rolled back to his head and he fell unconscious to the floor. Karin spun around, looking at Shinji over her shoulder and surprising him by kicking her leg back towards his face. Hitting her target (his nose) square in the middle she sent Shinji flying out of the window, past Toushiro.

Now Toushiro and Karin were the only (conscious) people in the canteen. Karin was glaring at him warningly, the only reason she hadn't attacked him was that she knew he usually wasn't a part of the group's idiot ideas.

Toushiro however was having some serious trouble to keep his eyes on Karin's face. After a long staring contest between the two, Toushiro's eyes moved down for an almost unnoticeable moment. Karin was (unfortunately for Toushiro) a sharp girl. She closed her eyes, steaming with anger, before she jumped from the table and hit Toushiro with a perfect mid-air roundhouse kick.

Toushiro just barely missed the wall and flew alongside it for few dozen meters, before hitting a huge stone. With a loud crack he fell to the ground, unconscious like the rest of the group.

Karin jumped to the edge on the window and out, walking calmly to the unconscious white-headed boy. Jinta had managed to steal the towel (in her head she was planning things Jinta certainly didn't want to know) so she needed something else to wear. Out of the boys she had knocked out Toushiro was the only one wearing a long coat.

"Sorry Toushiro, I have to borrow this. You can blame your idiot friends about this", she said taking the coat from Toushiro. She put her hands through the sleeves and had to roll them up a bit. Even though she was almost equal height with Toushiro, the boy had much longer legs and arms, indicating he was still going to grow.

Karin spun around and headed back towards her house. She was still angry, ready to beat up anyone who would come in her way. No one did, apparently they had heard Karin wasn't in a good mood. And every single guy in the village had once crossed ways with Karin when she wasn't in a good mood. It wasn't an encounter easy to forget.

Karin finally reached the small two story building she lived in with her father. The uppear floor was practically only an attic, but Karin loved it. The attic was also her room. She loved to sit on the windowsill and watch to stars.

Because neither Karin nor her father had time or interest to take care of the garden it had gotten pretty much out of hands. The grass was so long that it reached over Karin's ankles as she walked to the front door. There were also some bushes, but no one was sure if they were meant to be a decoration or a fence.

The only thing relatively beautiful in the garden was the old apple tree. It was not high, but wider than any tree in the village and always produced the best apples. Karin sometimes greeted the tree elder with a friendly pat. Not today. Today she was still angry.

Karin threw the front door open and stomped right to her room to put on some new clothes. His father wasn't at home, he was probably attacking a group of soldiers of the Kingdom of Hollowes led by Aizen. He had taken over the throne before the birth of Karin and whole her life she had been fighting alongside her father against Aizen and his groups.

Nowadays Karin was bored in the missions she got. Always just attacking food or weapon transportations. Only her father and the oldest men in the freedom fighters got real missions with real fights. Everyone from the group of idiots had been with a group attacking the soldiers at least once. Toushiro and Ichigo were the ones with most fights.

Karin hadn't been allowed to join for even a single time. To keep her frustration at bay her father let her lead the attacks against the wagons with food or weapons in them. Karin knew it was a show of trust but it still didn't stop her from feeling annoyed and underrated.

In her room Karin took the coat she had "borrowed" from Toushiro off and pulled some of her own clothes from the closet. She chose to wear dark red combat trousers with a tight black top. She quickly grabbed a new towel from her bathroom (she had refused to share one with her father so they had two).

Drying her dripping wet hair she walked to the small desk next to her bed pulling a journal and a pen from the top shelf. Throwing the now wet towel away she sat cross-legged to the bed opening her journal to continue writing it. The journal was full of her complaining about the trick the group of idiots had done to her.

She had a head-line for every single time she learned what not to do near them. One example was: "Do not wear a bikini top with strings tied behind back". Karin fisted her hands as she remembered what the boys had done.

She picked her pen and started to write about what she had learned this time. "Do not let clothes where the idiots can pick them when going to shower".

Soon Karin finished her writing and put the journal back to its place. Of course there were other things written in it than all of the teasing the guys had done. There was also many entries about her frustration of not getting real action, good memories from childhood, wondering and random scribbling. The diary was probably the only girly thing Karin had.

She laid down on the bed and let her gaze wander around the small room. The walls were made from dark wood, just like the whole house, and the furniture was pretty simple. She had only her bed, closet and the small desk next to her bed. On the other side of the room was a stand for her favorite weapons: two handguns and a long sword.

Mostly she used the sword like everyone else, but when fighting long range she had to use the two guns. Usually they didn't work very well since the bullets were pretty slow and most swords had a guard against them. She also had a bow, but it was only for hunting food.

Suddenly she heard the front door slam open and a booming laughter filled the cabin. Her father was home. She got up from the bed and walked to the stairs to peek downstairs if he was with anyone.

"Great job today Byakuya, we really showed them", her father laughing in his low voice. Karin only saw the back of the man, but she already knew who he was. He was the first person her father had adopted and thus the oldest in the village, Byakuya. He was a silent warrior with a cold gaze.

Karin had always been a bit wary when she was in the company of the young man. She had often trained with him and had learned he showed no mercy no matter who was the enemy.

"Karin! Come downstairs, I want to see my pretty daughter!" her father called and she shook off the uncomfortable feeling caused by the black haired man. She jogged the stairs down and around the corner to see her father sitting in the kitchen. A wide smile appeared on her face.

"Hi Dad! Did the trip go well?" she asked, causing another deafening howl of laughter from the man. He grinned devilishly and threw his sword to the wall of the living room. It swayed for a moment before sticking tightly to the wall.

Karin's father was quite a sight, only his looks sometimes scared his enemy. He wore the traditional battle outfit of the freedom fighters, a black kimono, with a white haori on top of it. Both the kimono and haori were ragged from the battles, but he didn't want to change it. He usually kept the upper part of the kimono open to show his muscular scar-covered chest.

He also had a scar on his face, running down the left side of his face. He wore an unnecessary eye patch over his right eye and sometimes had bells in his ridiculous looking hairstyle. Not this time, the mission had been a stealth mission. Though probably after the attack it wasn't a stealth mission anymore.

The leader of the freedom fighters didn't do stealth missions. He was the feared Zaraki Kenpachi.

"Beat those mummy's boys like nothing! I can't believe the level of the soldiers in Aizen groups. They suck!" he bellowed and laughed again. Karin grinned devilishly, habit she had learned from her father.

"But I had a few things I wanted to discuss with you. First, what are these clothes that were on the porch when I arrived?" Kenpachi asked, his laughter stopping but the devilish grin never leaving his face. Karin's grin however disappeared and was replaced by an angry scowl.

"That would be the doing of the idiots. The stole those clothes while I was in shower", Karin growled grabbing the clothes her father was holding. He raised one invisible eyebrow curiously.

"Would it have something to do with the fact six of the best men I got are laying in hospital beds?" he asked. Byakuya, who had moved to stand on Karin's side, looked really disapproving. He was used to discipline and good behavior, being the leader of operations so often. Unlike usually, he was wearing only the black kimono, not the white haori on top of it. It was because he hadn't been the leader of the mission.

"It certainly has. And one more will end up in the hospital once I get my hands on him", Karin told. In her mind she saw herself beating Jinta into a small pulp.

"Well, since we have cleared the two out of the three things I wanted to talk with you, we should move to the last and most serious business", Kenpachi told with a huge yawn. Byakuya tried not to look at his leader with a disapproving gaze.

"I've been thinking about sending you out on a true mission. You will be moving in pairs and Byakuya shall be the leader. He already picked the pair for you, judging by your skills. I think you know him pretty well. I'm just sad we have to break the team Candyheads up", he told and chuckled.

Karin however was listening sharply. She was going to get to go on a real mission. She could show her true skills.

"Team Candyheads? Who do you mean Dad?" she asked curiously. Her father often used odd names off regular pairs.

"Renji and Ichigo of course! You'll be paired with Ichigo and I think we should make Toushiro and Renji a pair", Zaraki told looking at Karin like she was stupid. Currently her expression might have looked like it.

She was staring at her father, mouth hanging open. She didn't believe her ears. There was one thing no one in their right mind would do and that was to break the pair of Ichigo and Renji. And even if they did, they should never, _never_, assign either of the boys to be _Karin's_ pair. That was just downright stupid.

"I'm expecting you to be on the training grounds tomorrow at 7 a.m. so that we can practice working with these pairs before the mission", Byakuya told expressionlessly before exiting the house. Karin grimaced after him and judging by the change in his posture one would think he had seen it.

"So what was this stealing of your clothes? Did they really do it? Do you need me to beat them up for you?" Kenpachi asked as soon as Byakuya had disappeared. Karin shot an amused glance at her father and shook her head.

"No thanks, I can take care of myself", she told making her father burst out in another deafening laughter. It rang in their small house.

"You're a good girl Karin! Just remember that boys will always be boys", he laughed patting Karin's head with his huge hand as he stood up.

"Could you be so nice that you'd cook something good for your old man? I need to take a shower", he said over his shoulder at the bathroom door.

"You do need a shower, you smell terrible. And I can't cook anything", Karin told holding her nose. He looked at her confused.

"Then how do we usually get food? I remember eating here", he said scratching his chin. Karin chuckled and shook her head. Living with her father was really relaxed.

"Yumichika usually brings his cooking. But I guess now he can't since for a certain reason he's sleeping in the hospital", Karin told scratching the back of her head embarrassedly. She hadn't cared a bit about the fact that Yumichika provided the father and daughter their meals when she knocked him out.

"You're right! Next time someone steals your clothes don't send our chef to hospital, okay?" Kenpachi asked and Karin nodded agreeing with her father. She was getting hungry and Yumichika was a good cook.

"I'll go to get something from the canteen! They always have some leftovers", Karin suggested. Her father nodded.

"You do that. I'll take my shower", he said closing the bathroom door behind him. Karin turned her head towards the front door and suppressed a sigh. It was her fault they didn't have food so she should be the one getting something.

She grabbed her black hoodie from the couch in the living room and put on her black boots before opening the front door. The sun had already set and it was starting to get cool. Karin lifted her head to gaze the trees around her. The long warm summer was coming to an end, the few maple trees' leaves were already starting to turn yellow.

Karin sighed and pulled the hoodie tighter around her. She started to jog towards the canteen, hoping that there still was someone there to let her have some of the food. The way to canteen was pretty quiet, most of the guys either sleeping or training on the other side of the village.

Karin reached the canteen just as the last person working there this week was coming out. Karin sped up and managed to catch him before he closed the door. A little bit out of breath she explained her reason of coming and the young man went inside and returned with a big container full of food. Karin thanked the man who just told her smiling that it wasn't a big deal.

Karin waved at the young man for last time before she turned to head back home. It was almost time for new moon, so it was pretty dark. Karin didn't fear the darkness, but it made her feel uneasy. She had been raised to fight against human and monsters (Aizen army consisted both) and she knew that monsters loved to move in the darkness.

She turned to the path leading to her house when she heard a crack behind her. She spun around holding her hand without container in fist in front of her face cursing that she had left her sword home. She relaxed a bit when she saw the familiar white hair emerge from the darkness.

"Toushiro, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the hospital?" Karin asked moving the container in front of her holding it with both of her hands. The teal eyes young man sat on the rock next to the path.

"They wanted all of us to sleep there because of slight concussions and bruised faces in Ichigo's and Renji's cases, but I don't like to sleep in the hospital. The beds are too hard", he said staring at Karin, face blank. "I sneaked out".

"Okay, that explains the reason you're not in hospital, but why are you _here_? You live on the other side of the village, don't you? And aren't you cold?" Karin asked glancing at the young man. He was only wearing the white t-shirt and grey jeans. Karin herself was shivering because of the cold despite her hoodie.

"Not really. I like the coolness. Summer was too hot", Toushiro said lifting his eyes to stare at the stars above. Karin followed his gaze and tried to spot her favorite star. It wasn't the brightest or the easiest to find. But it was Karin's star.

One time when her dad had gotten sentimental (meaning he was really drunk) he had told her how her mother, who died giving birth to Karin, had told that the star would be Karin's lucky star. Since that day every time she looked at the night sky she tried to spot her star.

The star was close to the moon with three brighter stars in a triangle around it. Because of the brightness of the three surrounding stars Karin's star was almost invisible to the bare eye.

After spotting the star Karin gave it a small smile before turning to look back at Toshiro. He was staring at her curiously. Karin raised her eyebrow, daring him to ask something. He shook his head quickly.

"I'm here to get my coat back. I know you took it, Shuuhei told me. He saw _everything_ according to his words", Toushiro said emphasizing the word everything. Karin knew what Shuuhei had meant when he said so and added his name on the list of those who needed a beating.

"Follow me, I think it's somewhere in my room", Karin sighed and Toushiro stood up from the rock. They walked in silence, not feeling the need to break it with unnecessary talking.

Soon they reached the small cottage where Karin lived. She slammed the door open like she usually did (they broke doors pretty quickly with both the father and daughter slamming them) and yelled: "I'M HOME!"

"GREAT! DID YOU GET THE FOOD?" her father yelled back from the living room. There was a good reason the cottage was build so far from other buildings. Karin and her father were the two loudest people living in the village and when you put loud and loud under the same roof you get an unending uproar.

"IN THE KITCHEN!" Karin yelled. Toushiro had already covered his ears with his hands. Everyone in the village was accustomed to the communication ways of the father and daughter.

"Great, I was starving", Kenpachi said entering the kitchen. Karin had just placed the container on the kitchen table. The leader of the freedom fighters was wearing only a towel around his waist with usually pointy most gravity-defying hair in the world was now hanging flat on his shoulders. Toushiro couldn't help but wonder how on earth he made it stick up like it usually did.

"Hello Toushiro. What are you doing in here? Escorting Karin home?" Kenpachi asked staring at the white-haired young man with a look which told how ridiculous he thought the last option was.

"Hi Dad. I'm just here to pick up my coat. She borrowed it earlier today", Toushiro said trying to sound as normal as possible. Kenpachi wasn't fooled. He leaned closer with his usual devilish grin.

"So you're one of the kiddies who stole the clothes of my daughter, eh? Don't you boys know to respect a lady?" he asked smiling dangerously. Toushiro took a step backwards, starting to sweat. Karin snorted to the idea of her being a lady. She might be a woman, and a very womanish woman by her development, but no one would ever call her a lady.

"It wasn't my idea!" Toushiro said making Karin laugh. She loved how her father was able to make the guys act like they were five again. She left Toushiro to be grilled by her father and run the stairs up to her room to look for the coat she had borrowed.

Karin's room was a room where non guy had visited (excluding her father of course). Even though she had always been a close friend to many guys they had always remained downstairs. Karin didn't know it, but many guys wished they'd once be invited to her room.

She quickly grabbed Toushiro's coat from her room and hurried downstairs. Toushiro had his back pressed against the wall and he was warily glancing at the huge man in front of him. No one could ever tell what his devilish grins meant.

"Here's your coat!" Karin exclaimed throwing the green cloth over to Toushiro. He turned to look a little too late and the coat fell over his face. He quickly pulled it off and folded over his arm.

"Next time try to stop those idiots. You seem to be the only sensible person within them", Karin said solemnly and Toushiro nodded. Both of them knew that even if the white-haired youngster tried to stop his friends they probably wouldn't do so.

"Good night", Toushiro said over his shoulder as he exited the cottage. Karin waved a hand after him, Kenpachi only grunted something unintelligent. Toushiro closed the door and disappeared to the dark night.

"You'd better go to sleep, tomorrow you'll have your last training before a real mission", Kenpachi told glancing at his daughter from the corner of his eye. She was standing next to the chair he had sat down hands behind her back with a bit dreamy expression. She turned towards him with a big smile.

"Yup, that's a good idea. And thanks for letting me finally go! I'll show you it was not a mistake!" Karin exclaimed pumping her fist into the air, grinning widely. Kenpachi grinned back at her, inwardly proud of his daughter.

"Good night Dad!" Karin said and a quickly pecked the cheek of her father. He ruffled her hair and they grinned at each other with almost identical grins.

Karin left the kitchen quickly, jumping the stairs up two at a time. Kenpachi shook his head, amused by the girl's excitement. The love for battle was something she had inherited from him.

Kenpachi stood up and with a final glance out of the window to the moon he went to get some sleep himself.

* * *

The morning came in an usual way in the village. Instead of a quiet morning the day in the village of freedom fighters began with either Renji's or Ichigo's screaming after which the duo raced through the village, angry one chasing the laughing one.

So was the morning of Karin's first real mission. A very manly scream (can you sense the sarcasm?) came from Ichigo as Renji somehow managed to get him to inhale chili powder through his nose. Everyone in the village started to slowly wake up as the duo ran through the village, trying to avoid any trees, rocks and people.

Karin got up, completely awake and ready to get the training started with. She put on her training outfit (very loose black pants and a black top with a belt for her guns and sword tied to her back) before running downstairs to get some breakfast. She heard her father's snoring from his room and chuckled. Zaraki Kenpachi was the only one in the village who didn't wake up because of the yelling of Renji and Ichigo.

Karin quickly chewed down two sandwiches and drank a glass of apple juice throwing the dirty dishes to the table next to the sink. The pile there was starting to get too big to handle, since neither she nor her father ever did any housework. Occasionally someone came to visit and pitied them cleaning up a bit.

Before leaving the house Karin checked her image from her reflection in the window. Her hair was open since it was short enough not to bother her while it was open. Satisfied with her looks she opened the door and walked out.

She closed her eyes enjoying the warmth of the morning sun on her face. She walked to the old apple tree giving it a pat and a friendly smile as she walked by. As soon as she was out her yard (as soon as the grass started to be shorter) she started to jog slowly to get her muscles warm.

When she arrived at the training field she noticed almost everyone had already arrived. The attack parties were always consisted of six men and a leader. Byakuya was standing in the middle of the field, wearing his kimono and the haori indicating the fact he was the commander today, at least for their group.

The three other people on the field were Toushiro, Ikkaku and Yumichika. All of them were wearing similar training outfit as the one Karin was wearing. Only differences were with the weapons.

Ikkaku had his usual sword on his waist and a huge Chinese monk's spade tied to his back. Karin wasn't sure how he managed to use such a huge weapon since he never used it in the training field.

Ikkaku had a shorter sword with which looked like a sickle with four blades and a bag for throwing knives over his shoulder. Yumichika had the best aim in the whole village.

Toushiro only had one weapon, his sword which was tied to his back with a green sash. A metallic chain was connected to the end of the hilt of the sword. It was custom made in their village so the chain was able to extend huge amounts. It was said that the sword had another special ability but Karin didn't know more about it.

None of the guys had any guns with them, which told how unusual it was to use them.

Byakuya turned to look at Karin as she slowly approached the group. He gave her a short nod before returning to his original position. Karin suppressed a smile, knowing who they were waiting for.

Only minutes later the bright haired men ran towards the field. They were late and they knew it. Both stopped in front of Byakuya trying to gather their breaths.

Ichigo had his both swords with him. Both of them were black, a normal katana tied to his waist and a kitchen knife –like huge sword in his back. Karin had heard he liked to use them both, rather the kitchen knife –like though.

Renji had only one sword like Toushiro. The sword didn't look like a traditional sword though, it had six segments which were connected to each other by stretchable thread. It was useful in as a long-range weapon.

Byakuya glared coldly at the two guys, who only panted and lowered their heads. No one said anything and after a moment Byakuya waved his hand gesturing that the group had to line up. They moved to the pairs they were assigned to be in and stood in a neat line in front of Byakuya.

"Our mission tonight will be to attack the enemy-group west from the village of Inuzuri. There are fewer of us, but they won't be waiting for anyone to attack so we have the upper hand. I expected everyone to be able to make it out alive. Now we'll practice with the pair you'll be paired with this evening so that you'll know each other better", he told and everyone rolled their eyes. Like they would need to learn each other better.

"For warm up you'll be wrestling. One of you will go to the ground and lay on their back while the other sits on top of them. Then the one laying on their back will try to get the other off them and get into a reversed situation. Of course the other one will fight back", the black haired young man commanded.

Karin looked at Ichigo, trying to think of a way to beat him as they removed their weapons. They would just be in the way when wrestling.

At the beginning Karin was paired up with Jinta in their martial art practices, but he stood no change against her. So later she had been a pair of the guys closer to her size _and _skills, since it was more rational to make the pairs that way.

That was the reason Karin was usually paired with Toushiro. The white-haired youngster shot a pitying gaze at Ichigo. He had no idea how strong and sly Karin could be.

Ichigo smirked at Karin. "Would you like to go first, miss Karin?" he said gesturing towards the ground. Ikkaku and Renji snickered.

"Whatever", Karin told with a shrug. She laid on her back on the ground, knees bent so that she would be able to use her legs. Ichigo sat on her lap and wrapped his fingers around Karin's wrists waiting for the sign to start.

"Begin!" Byakuya commanded and Ichigo tightened the hold of Karin's wrists. Karin was however faster and managed to free her left wrist from Ichigo. She grabbed his right arm moving her left foot to seize Ichigo's left ankle's movement.

With another quick move she pulled her other wrist free and hit tried to grab Ichigo's other arm. He moved the arm out of her reach, but that was just something she had been waiting for. She lifted her hip with help of her left leg and pressing herself close to Ichigo rolled them around. Now she was sitting in between of Ichigo's legs, holding his hand on top of his chest.

Quickly she grabbed the other hand too and slid her right leg over his left one, pressing his thigh with her knee, making it impossible for him to move his other leg. Before he was able to move the leg again after Karin had moved her leg over Ichigo's she flung the other leg over the boy's leg too and was sitting on top of the orange-head.

Ichigo started to struggle to get her off of him, but Karin made it harder by moving to sit on top of his chest, seizing his hands over his head.

"You lose Ichigo", she told him. The man tried to struggle, but he had to admit Karin knew her stuff. He of course had the upper hand because of his size compared to hers and soon they were rolling around the training field trying to tire each other out.

"That's enough, now we'll move on to other things", Byakuya announced as Ichigo managed to get on top of Karin again. She grunted annoyedly. This meant she had lost. Ichigo stood up with a wide grin on his face, indicating he was thinking about the same thing.

He was a gentleman enough to help Karin up though.

* * *

**I really like how this chapter turned out to be. The wrestling in the end is a straight copy from what we did in my practice today, I'm just not sure if it's written clearly enough. Hopefully you understood at least some of the things I was trying to describe.**

**This is my first AU story, so tell me what you think! I really like reviews!**

**I tried to make it written in a different way from my other story 'Three Things' so that I wouldn't end up making kind of a sequel to the first story. I hope you like it.**

**Hugs to everyone! Please review!**

**~Vilu**


	2. Chapter 2

**I give you the second chapter of Flower Among Men!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach!**

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After few hours of training which had included hand-to-hand combat, sword fighting and every kind of fighting one could come up with Byakuya finally let the six adolescents to have a break.

"You must rest for the rest of the day. When the sun sets we'll take off", he said glancing from one panting person to another. Renji and Yumichika were laying on the ground, Ichigo sitting on a bench and Ikkaku, trying to be a tough guy, was standing with a hand on his hip sweeping sweat off his forehead with another. Karin was standing too, leaning on her knees breathing heavily. Toushiro was father away with his back against a trunk of a tree.

"And I mean rest when I say rest. Absolutely no running around. Do you hear me Ichigo, Renji?" Byakuya continued glaring at the young men. Both nodded too out of breath to say anything. Byakuya turned around and walked away from the training field with that.

"You're much tougher than I realized you were, little girl!" Ichigo said once his breathing had calmed down. Karin shot a mean glare at him. The man was only a year older than she was so she didn't want to hear 'little girl' from him. In fact she didn't want to hear that from anyone, except maybe her father.

"Yeah, tough enough to kick your ass!" she told grinning challengingly. Ichigo's eyebrows shot up before his expression was back to his usual scowl. He glared at the raven haired girl in front of him.

"Ya wanna see if I can be beaten that easily?" he said walking closer to Karin. He stopped right in front of her and looked down. Karin scowled looking up to the orange-headed man. Sometimes she wished she was taller. Like now.

"Bring it on big guy!" Karin said lifting her fists in front of her face and taking a step away from Ichigo so that he couldn't land a hit on her easily. The taller man lifted his eyebrow before taking his stance too. The two stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.

Suddenly a stern voice boomed around the field from the speakers surrounding it. "Didn't I tell you to rest? Now get out of the field and into your beds!"

Everyone recognized the voice as Byakuya and looked around to try and spot the man. They saw nobody.

"Okay, that was odd. How could he tell we were about to fight?" Karin asked still looking warily around herself. Yumichika and Ikkaku, not interested in a fight against a girl had already left the field and were walking to their home. Most of the guys lived with at least one roommate, though there were exceptions. Like Byakuya for example.

"Are you scared?" Ichigo sneered. Karin hit his jaw with a strong right hook without even looking at his direction, making him fall to the ground. Renji stared at the scene with a smirk slowly forming on his face. Soon he was laughing so hard that tears were rolling down his face. Toushiro turned his head away to hide his amused smile.

Karin turned to look at the man laying on the ground with a fake surprised look.

"How did you get there? Do you have such an awful balance?" she asked sounding extremely worried. Ichigo shot an extremely dirty look at her making her smirk.

The speakers rattled as someone coughed into the mic. Everyone still on the field glanced up and very quickly disappeared towards their houses. With a final wave to the three guys, which only Toushiro and Renji returned, Ichigo trying to recollect his lost pride, Karin started walking to the opposite direction from the guys.

Karin walked slowly through the forest path back to her house. There was no reason to hurry especially when she was already tired. She saw a huge Saint Bernard jogging slowly towards her. She smiled recognizing the village's dog.

"Hi Chad! Where have you been?" she asked kneeling down next to the dog to ruffle the hair around his neck. He barked a low bark and licked Karin's face. She chuckled.

"C'mon Chad, I don't need a bath", she laughed trying to push the dog away. It was pretty hard considering the size of it. He lifted his huge paws to Karin's shoulders, making the girl fall down on her back. She lifted her hands in front of face and tried to escape the dog's tongue.

"Chad! I'm drowning!" Karin exclaimed still laughing. Chad barked lowly and continued to lick her face.

"Karin? What are you doing?" a curious male voice asked. Karin bent her head backwards to look at the white-haired boy with a curious look on his face. She grimaced at him.

"What does it look like? I'm being attacked", she scoffed trying to lean away from the dog pushing him away at the same time. Toushiro rolled his eyes.

"So you can beat many guys in strength and especially intelligence but you lose to a dog? I'm starting to get very afraid about how our mission tonight will turn out to be", he said kneeling down to scratch Chad between his ears. He turned to look at the boy and suddenly jumped towards him.

Now it was Toushiro's turn to lie on the ground and be tongue-bathed by the huge Saint Bernhard. He tried to squirm away from under the dog, but he didn't like it and lay down on top of the white-haired youth. He huffed as the air escaped from his lungs.

"Karin… help… heavy", he breathed. Karin looked at the boy in trouble and tried to stifle her laughter, only to fail. Soon she was sitting on the ground holding her stomach, which had started to hurt from laughing so much.

"Stop laughing… and help me", Toushiro said looking pretty annoyed. Karin stood up and walked to Chad. She put her hand on his back to get the dog's attention.

"Chad, I know you just live little cute things but Toushiro needs to breathe. So if you move just – one – bit", she said trying to push the dog away. It only looked at her panting happily. Karin pushed harder but the dog didn't move an inch.

"Sorry Toushiro, he's too heavy. Wait a sec, I'll go to look for something cuter than you", she said turning around and running towards the centre of the village. Toushiro looked after her not knowing whether he should laugh or cry.

"Something cute, something cute", Karin muttered while running around. She was getting frustrated. "How hard is it to find something cuter than Toushiro!" she sighed.

Karin wasn't really the best person to look for something cute, she was a tomboy after all. Finally, when she was frustrated enough, she drew a deep breath before yelling "SOMEONE BRING ME SOMETHING CUTE!" from the top of her lungs.

Of course everyone who heard her stopped dead in their tracks and turned to stare at her flabbergasted. She blushed a bit realizing how stupid she must have sounded.

"Well… err... I need it for Chad…", she said scratching the back of her head. Everyone nodded understandingly and some "of course"s and "Oh"s were heard. Everyone knew Chad and his obsession with cute things.

Suddenly Karin spotted something tiny and black hopping away from her. A mischievous glint appeared in her eyes and she quickly stalked closer to the small creature grabbing a box of strawberries from a guy walking past her.

"Oh Rukia~", she called the rabbit. It turned to look at her suspiciously. Karin slowly walked closer to the rabbit.

"Would you like to come with me? I have some strawberries! Yeah, strawberries", she said taking one strawberry and waving it in front of the rabbits nose. The small black animal jumped immediately to Karin's arms and she gave the strawberry to it.

"Good little Rukia", Karin cooed and started to run back to the spot she had left Toushiro.

Said teal-eyed man was still laying under the Saint Bernhard and was starting to wonder if Karin was coming back at all. Chad had stopped licking his face and was now snoring on top of the young man.

After five minutes Toushiro was quite sure he was hearing footsteps coming closer. He turned his head to look at the direction of the sound. Soon he saw Karin jogging towards him holding a box of strawberries and a black rabbit in her arms.

"Fear not young man, I'm here to save you", Karin told him as she stopped beside him and the dog. His teal eyes flared at her and she chuckled rolling her eyes.

"C'mon Toushiro, where is your sense of humor? Don't you realize how amusing the situation is?" she asked kneeling down beside him. He just glared at her.

"Hmm? Cat got your tongue?" Karin asked cocking her head to side. Toushiro sighed swallowing his pride and opening his mouth.

"Could you please help me Karin?" he asked looking the raven haired girl deep in her dark blue-grey eyes, not glaring anymore. Karin smiled a genuine smile.

"Sure, now that you ask nicely. Here, have a strawberry", she said stuffing one red fruit into his mouth before he was able to stop her. The cold glare was back but he did swallow the strawberry instead of spitting it out. That would just be wasting a perfectly good fruit.

"Hey Chad~! Look who I brought!" Karin said nudging the dog sleeping on top of Toushiro. He lazily opened his eyes and looked at Karin. She lifted the little black rabbit so that she was facing the Saint Bernhard. Chad immediately stood up and walked to Karin, or rather to Rukia.

Karin put the small creature on the ground in front of him, also leaving the box of strawberries. Chad cuddled the rabbit between his front paws giving her a lick. She looked at him confusedly before turning to the strawberries and starting to munch them.

Toushiro had already stood up and was dusting his clothes. Karin looked at him expectantly. Finally Toushiro lifted his eyes to meet Karin's. He took a deep sigh.

"Thanks for your help. Without you I don't know how long it would have taken for me to get away", he said solemnly looking her in the eyes. She closed them shaking her head smiling a bit.

"Hey, you need to take care of your teammates. Who else can you trust?" she asked looking at Toushiro. He was surprised to hear her say that, but agreed with her completely. Though maybe that was exaggerating it when it was about not getting away from a dog.

"You are right. But I think we both need to go to collect our strength for tonight. See you at nightfall", Toushiro said waving his hand starting to walk to the opposite direction from Karin.

Karin turned to go home too but after few steps she realized something.

"Toushiro, wait a sec!" she yelled after the boy. He turned his head to glance over his shoulder. Karin quickly ran to the boy so she wouldn't have to yell.

"Why were you walking here? I mean you live on the other side of the village", she asked him. She had wondered that the moment she saw him but she had forgotten it while trying to help him.

To her surprise she thought she was able to see a red tinge on his cheeks. He quickly averted his eyes and became very interested in the treetops above their heads.

"I thought I should go for a walk to relax my muscles better. I just like to walk in the woods so I came this way", he said and turned his eyes back to Karin's. She looked really suspicious. The village had forests all over it, the village was practically in the forest. It was built so that it would be harder for enemies to spot.

"Okay, whatever you say. See you later", Karin shrugged after studying Toushiro's expression for a while. She turned around and started to jog towards the cottage she lived in. Toushiro looked after her until she disappeared from his sight before heading towards his home with a deep sigh.

* * *

Many people wondered how exactly Toushiro was able to maintain his patience when living with Renji and Ichigo. The three of them shared a two-story cottage right at the edge of the village. Because the shared the apartment they also shared the chores.

Renji was in charge of cooking every time they didn't eat at the canteen and surprisingly his food was edible though a bit spicy. Ichigo always did the laundry, though occasionally he had managed to dye all of their white shirts pink when he accidentally put red boxers or socks to the machine. Toushiro originally owned five similar white t-shirts but now he had two white ones and three pink.

That left Toushiro with cleaning in the house. That was possible the hardest chore do to, considering how messy the two other boys were able to get. So when Toushiro arrived to his house he was welcomed with what looked like a bombsite.

There were something unrecognizable red stuff dripping from the walls (smelled a bit like ketchup), the couch was upside down in the middle of the room, huge amounts of papers were all around the floor and a watering can was hanging from the fan in the roof. Toushiro stared at the room with mouth hanging open before a vein started to pop in his forehead.

"ICHIGO! RENJI! WHAT THE HELL?!" he yelled from the top off his lungs. Ichigo's head peeked around the corner from kitchen and Renji scrambled away from under the carpet. They both stared at the angry white-haired boy then at the room and back. They started to back away as they realized why he was angry.

"What has happened here?" Toushiro asked glaring at the duo. They both started to speak at the same time and there was no hope for Toushiro to understand even bits of their explaining.

"You know what, I don't even want to know. Just… clean up!" he sighed annoyed and quickly left the room to go to his room. He walked up the stairs and opened his door. Only to get a bucket full of cold water on him.

The usually surprisingly calm boy was boiling with anger. If someone had walked past they would have sworn the water was evaporating. His face was as red as Renji's hair.

"This is enough. YOU TWO DIE TODAY!" he roared bolting downstairs. The other two men had already disappeared before he even opened his door. He growled angrily, muttering what he would do to the duo. Still he knew better than try to go look for them from the village. Those two knew the best hiding places.

Toushiro sighed deeply and decided to take a calming shower before a nap.

* * *

On the other side of the village Karin had decided to take a shower too. On the previous day she had taken a shower in the showers next to training field instead of the one in her house and everyone knew the consequences.

Now she headed to the shower after noticing her father had woken up during her training and probably went to look for someone to fight with him. Karin stripped off her sweaty training outfit and threw it into the laundry basket. She turned the water to a cool temperature and carefully moved under the flow.

She sighed deeply relaxing her shoulders and just enjoying the water falling to her shoulders. After relaxing for a moment she took a shampoo bottle and washed her hair. After she was done she still didn't want to get out from under the water; it was too comfortable.

With a deep sigh she turned the water off and grabbed a towel. She dried herself before wrapping the towel around her body. After taking another towel and wrapping it around her hair she left the bathroom.

The first thing Karin noticed was that her father was back – and for some reason also Yumichika was there.

"Hi Karin. What do you want to eat? Dad couldn't decide by himself", Yumichika said noticing the girl before Kenpachi. The huge black haired man looked over his shoulder noticing his daughter confused at the bathroom door.

"I brought him here to cook. I know you have the mission today so I wanted to make sure you'd get the best food possible", he said grinning. Karin suppressed a chuckle. But what her father said was true. Yumichika was without a doubt the best cook in the village.

"I'd like to have something with fish", Karin said after thinking for a while. Yumichika nodded and turned to the fridge to look for fish. He was the one who had bought everything in the fridge so he knew what there should be.

"Are you excited? Tonight will be your first real mission!" he asked over his shoulder.

"Not that much but it's nice I finally get to go. I would have liked to go earlier", she said glaring at her father. He looked back confused, like he didn't understand what Karin meant. She sighed and shook her head.

"I'll go to my room. Call me when the food is ready", she said before climbing the stairs up to her room. Once she was inside and the door was closed she threw the towel to the back of a chair walking to the closet. She opened it and started to look for something to wear.

She pulled out loose shorts and a big t-shirt (which she had stolen from her father's closet) and decided that they were good enough for her to wear at home. As she pulled the shirt on (it reached her knees) she heard Yumichika yell from downstairs "DO YOU WANT POTATOES OR RICE WITH THE FISH?"

Karin thought about it for a second.

"POTATOES PLEASE!" she yelled after deciding.

Downstairs Kenpachi chuckled shaking his head. "I'm going out for a walk. I'll be back when the food is ready", he said stretching his arms. Yumichika glanced at the man confused.

"How will you know when the food is ready?" he asked. Kenpachi just laughed patting his shoulder before grabbing his sword and walking out of the door. Yumichika just shrugged and turned back to his cooking.

Meanwhile upstairs Karin had finished writing her diary and put the notebook back to where it belonged. She stretched her arms above her head yawning widely.

"I could take a nap. Yumichika will wake me up when the food is ready", she muttered to herself falling down to the bed. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

The next thing Karin knew was that Yumichika was shaking her. Her eyes flew open and her fist made contact with the man's nose. He fell backwards on the floor.

"HEY! What was that for? I was just trying to wake you up", he protested holding his nose. It wasn't broken but it hurt like hell. Karin glared at him.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Room." she growled slowly. Yumichika's eyes widened and he seemed to realize for the first time that he was in her room. In the room no guy had been before. He looked around curiously, but moved his eyes back to Karin as she started growling dangerously.

Yumichika was out of the room before Karin was able to open her mouth again. She glared at the empty spot the man had been before sighing.

"I'm probably overreacting. He just came to wake me up. But he could have yelled. Or knocked", she muttered to herself before she followed him downstairs.

Yumichika was just carrying the plates to the small table as Karin came downstairs. He glanced at her, almost shuddering. Karin didn't smile, but she didn't glare at him either. She just sat down at the table.

"Here you go", Yumichika said putting the plate full of fish and potatoes in front of her. She looked at him sighing again.

"Thanks. Sorry that I hit you so hard", she said noticing how red his nose was. He scowled a bit.

"Yes you shouldn't have done so. I don't like it when people harm my beautiful face", he said and Karin rolled her eyes. Sometimes Yumichika was too concentrated on looking beautiful, especially for a guy. Even Karin wasn't so concerned on her looks even though some people expected her to be. She didn't understand why.

"I smell food!" Kenpachi exclaimed slamming the door open. It was the last time that door was slammed open. With a loud crack it was broken into two pieces.

"Dad c'mon! That's the second door this month! Be a bit more gentle with them!" Karin yelled and stuffed some fish to her mouth. Kenpachi looked at the part of the door he was still holding. Then he shrugged and threw it over his shoulder.

"I'll just get a new one. They don't make durable doors nowadays", he said sitting next to Karin. Yumichika put a plate with three times more food than Karin's plate in front of him.

"Thanks kid, I'm starving!" he said before starting to stuff the food in his mouth. Karin rolled her eyes at her father's behavior, but didn't say anything since her mouth was as full of food as his. Yumichika couldn't help but think how alike the father and daughter were.

"Sit down and eat kid! How else will you have strength to fight? Everyone needs to have strength to fight", Kenpachi said and Yumichika gladly took a plate for him and sat down to eat with the duo.

After everyone was full Yumichika left saying he wanted to take a nap before the mission. Karin thought about it too, but she didn't feel tired at all.

"Hey Dad! How long you think our mission will last? Will we be done tonight or will it be a several days before I come back home?" Karin asked getting too bored of trying to get sleep. Her father, who had been laying on the couch watching fighting from TV turned to look at her over his shoulder.

"I don't know, should be a short mission. Why do you ask? You scared?" he asked grinning madly. Karin rolled her eyes and sat down on the chair next to the couch.

"Nah, or maybe I fear that you'll tear the house apart while I'm gone", she grinned back. Kenpachi let out a booming laughter.

"Karin, you're a great kid! Never could have wished for a better one", he said and Karin smiled a bit proudly. Her father told her that often but she really liked it.

"Why haven't I been allowed to go on real missions before?" Karin asked after a moment of silence. She had never dared to ask it before fearing to hear that her father didn't think she could handle it.

"I didn't realize you wanted to go. You never asked", he simply answered. Karin stared at him mouth hanging open, eyes wide.

"So if I had asked if I could go you would have let me?" she asked to confirm it. Her father nodded before turning back to look at TV. Karin was starting to get angry, but she didn't know whether she was angry at her father or herself.

"I think I'll go for a walk", she muttered standing up and walking towards front door. Her father glanced over his shoulder again.

"Don't be late. You still need to sleep so you won't fall asleep during your mission", he said. Karin snorted as an answer before she walked out.

It had started to rain during the time Karin had slept earlier. She walked slowly to a cliff near the edge of the village. It was a place from where she was able to be alone. She sat down to a rock and gazed down to the green forest. She wasn't able to see the edges of it, only a green ocean.

Only right below the cliff was something else than trees. There was a little lake. It was the other reason Karin loved this cliff. It was not too high so she was able to jump to the water from the cliff without getting hurt.

After sitting in the rain for a moment Karin stood up. She looked down to her wet clothes. The huge t-shirt of her father was clinging to her skin.

"I guess I could jump. I can't get any wetter anyway", she mumbled to herself shrugging. Still she decided to remove the t-shirt so that it would be easier for her to swim. She threw it to the rock she had sat on before. She was now wearing her shorts and bra.

She took few steps away from the edge of the cliff. With a deep breath she sprinted towards the edge. She leaped and let out a scream (not a frightened one) as she felt the air whoosh by her.

She almost missed the surprised yell as she hit the water. She quickly kicked herself to the surface to see who or what had made the noise. She was surprised to see a certain white-haired boy in front of her with an equally surprised expression.

"Toushiro! What are you doing here?" she asked him brushing the wet bangs away from her face.

"I wasn't able to sleep anymore when Renji and Ichigo returned home so I decided to relax by coming to swim a bit. Then you almost killed me by jumping on me", he answered looking at her with a bored expression. His usually gravity-defying hair was now hanging limb along his head and the bang in front of his face kept sliding back in front of his eye no matter how many times he pushed it away.

"Well sorry. I just didn't think anyone would be swimming here in the rain", she said. Toushiro cocked his head.

"You're swimming here, aren't you? So why wouldn't anyone else be?" he asked. Karin thought for a moment but didn't have any intelligent answer.

"I don't know. I didn't know anyone else knew about this place. It's kinda hidden", she scoffed. Toushiro lifted his head to gaze the cliff.

"Yes, it is hidden. You can only spot it if you look down that cliff", he said nodding towards the cliff. Karin didn't bother following his eyes.

"You said you can't get any sleep in your house. Shouldn't Renji and Ichigo be sleeping too?" Karin asked curiously. She knew the duo could be loud and stupid but she thought they at least had the brains to get some sleep before staying up all night ready to ambush a group of soldiers.

"They should. I doubt they will. It's the annoying part in living with them. You rarely get any peace", Toushiro sighed shaking his head. Karin patted it.

"There there. You could come to sleep at my house. We have huge couches and Dad can be quiet. Or at least quieter than Renji and Ichigo", she suggested. Toushiro lifted his head staring at the girl eyes wide.

"Would that be a good idea?" he asked carefully. Karin cocked her head, not understanding what the boy meant. He shook his head.

"I'm sure Dad wouldn't mind. And you do look tired. It would be better if you got some sleep before the mission", Karin said inspecting the boys face. He had dark circles under his eyes.

"I could use some sleep, that's for sure", he admitted. Sometimes he had thought about moving to his own apartment but he liked Renji's cooking too much.

"Well then c'mon!" Karin said starting to swim out if the water. Toushiro followed right after her. They got out of the lake near the little path which led back to the cliff. Karin noticed a black shirt near the beginning of the path.

"This yours?" she asked Toushiro who got out of the lake after her. He nodded and caught the shirt as Karin threw it to him. The girl couldn't help but notice the long scar in his chest before he pulled the shirt on to cover it.

"Where did you get that scar from?" she asked pointing to his chest. He looked down, only seeing his shirt though, before looking back at the girl.

"I think it was the second real mission I had. I didn't notice a guy coming from behind in time and he managed to hit me with his sword. I managed to kill him but passed out from blood loss after that. I woke up in the hospital two days later", he told staring into nothing as he recalled the events.

"It had to be painful", Karin said grimacing a bit. She had been hit by a sword only once before and it was only a slight slice in the arm. The scar from it was barely visible.

"I guess it was. I can't remember it clearly and at the hospital they pumped me full of painkillers", he said shrugging. Karin chuckled a bit.

"Do you have a shirt somewhere or did you walk to here wearing only your bra?" Toushiro asked nodding towards Karin's chest. She looked down and got her rare womanly moment trying to cover herself.

"I have a shirt up there", she said nodding towards the cliff behind her, glaring at the boy. He lifted his hands in front of him, trying to tell he had meant nothing by the question.

"Okay, okay, relax", he said shaking his head in disbelief. Sometimes it was hard to understand a woman. "Let's just go to get it before it gets completely wet".

"It probably is already but it doesn't matter. We'll have to get it either way", Karin answered sounding bored now. She let her arms hang by her sides again.

The two youngsters headed away from the lake with that.

After fetching Karin's shirt they walked in silence to Karin's home. The cottage was silent but there was light coming from the windows indicating Kenpachi was at home. The door was open since Kenpachi had broken it earlier.

"Where is your front door?" Toushiro asked confused as the duo entered the house. Karin pointed towards the parts next to the place the door should have been.

"Thanks, that explains a lot", Toushiro said sarcastically. Karin decided to ignore him.

"DAD! I'M HOME! I BROUGHT TOUSHIRO TO SLEEP HERE SINCE HE CAN'T SLEEP AT HIS HOUSE! CAN HE use the couch", she yelled turning the volume down as Kenpachi entered the room. He looked at his daughter and the white-haired boy curiously with his usual smirk plastered on his face.

"Sure he can. Is he too afraid to sleep at his house and needs to be sleeping closer to you?" he asked and started laughing his usual booming laughter drowning Toushiro's futile attempts to correct him.

"Don't worry kid. Sleep!" Kenpachi laughed going back to his room. Toushiro stared after him really confused.

"Don't worry, he's always like that", Karin said patting Toushiro's shoulder. She covered her yawn with her other hand. "I think I'll go to my room to get some sleep. The couch is over there and there are blankets in that closet", Karin said pointing to the directions.

"Sleep well", Toushiro said as Karin climbed the stairs to her room. He then opened the closet and was immediately hit by a blanket avalanche.

"How many blankets do two people need?" he wondered pushing the pile of blankets off. He grabbed one of them before making his way to the couch.

* * *

He woke up hours later just as the sun was about to set. He glanced out of the window and noticed that the rain had stopped and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The sun had already turned red and was near the horizon.

"Crap! We're gonna be late!" he exclaimed jumping up from the couch. He looked around him not seeing anyone.

"Is Karin still sleeping? I hope she is or then she has just left me to sleep here", he wondered and headed towards the stairs. He walked upstairs and stopped in front of the door. He knocked it. No answer. He knocked again. Still no answer.

He slowly opened the door a crack so he could see inside. He saw the small bad and Karin sleeping on it. He opened the door completely and walked to the bed. Karin had an uncharasteric expression for her on her face. She was calm and relaxed, no trays of the usual scowl or smirk.

"Karin, wake up! We're soon gonna be late", he said gently shaking Karin's shoulder. She blinked slowly before her eyes flew open as she stared into his teal eyes. The next thing Toushiro knew was that Karin's foot was on his face.

He flew straight out of the door and down the stairs hitting his head painfully on the wall. He rubbed it gently as Karin appeared in the doorway.

"Didn't you know I have an unspoken rule that no guys are allowed in my room? What do you think you were doing", she asked glaring down at him. His eyes widened. _She_ was angry at _him._

"I came to wake you up. Or would you rather be late from your first real mission?" he yelled back angrily. The angry expression on Karin's face changed into a surprised one and she glanced at the clock. Her eyes widened and suddenly she was down the stairs.

"C'mon, we need to go!" she said grabbing Toushiro by the neckline of his shirt and pulling him after her. Soon they were both running towards the training field as fast as they were able.

"Toushiro", Karin called his attention as they ran. Toushiro turned his face to look at her. She was staring at her feet.

"Yes?" he asked curiously. It was rare to see Karin remorseful.

"Sorry that I kicked you. I just don't want anyone to enter my room without my permission", she explained in a quiet voice. Toushiro's eyes widened in surprise. She had actually said sorry to him like she meant it.

"No worries. And I wouldn't have come in if we wouldn't have needed to hurry already", he explained. Karin smiled at him gratefully.

"Yeah, thanks about that. It wouldn't have been fun to wake up and notice I had slept too late", she chuckled as they reached the training field. Byakuya was already there along with the rest of their group. Everyone else was wearing the freedom fighters' kimonos.

"Here are your kimonos. Change quickly", Byakuya said throwing two neatly folded black outfits to Karin and Toushiro. Both caught them and headed for the dressing rooms next to the training field.

It was not the first time for Karin to wear the outfit. She had gone to the food and weapon transition ambushing missions and had also had a change to wear the white haori few times.

Still this felt different. It was her first real mission. Not the kid stuff anymore. She was done in record time and soon their whole group was standing in pairs in front of Byakuya, ready to get the information on their mission.

"We'll move in two smaller groups. I'll be going with Ikkaku and Yumichika and the rest of you are the other group. We'll surround the soldiers from both sides of the road. They should be moving out of the town of Inuzuri in about an hour. We'll be there in half an hour to get everything ready. My group will be on the south side of the road and yours will be on northern side", he told. Everyone nodded simultaneously.

"Right, and no playing hero or anything like that. You will follow my orders", the older man commanded glaring at Renji and Ichigo. Everyone nodded again.

"Now that everything is clear, let's move", he commanded and the small group started to jog towards Inuzuri.

Inuzuri was a small poor village not too far from the freedom fighter's village. Everyone in there hated the Kingdom of Hollowes and Aizen from the bottom of their hearts and often helped the freedom fighters by giving them food and weapons.

Karin had been there once before when they were attacking a weapon-transportation. All of the villagers had treated her well, though they were surprised to see a woman within the fighters.

The group arrived at the village on time and they were able to find the perfect ambushing spot. Karin's excitement about her first real mission had started to die down as they just sat in the bushes on either side of the road waiting for the soldiers to walk past.

"Not quite like you had in mind, eh?" Ichigo asked as Karin yawned for the third time within three minutes. She glared at him.

"No one told me the waiting was this boring. We're just sitting here and nothing is happening", she complained. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"You'll forget everything about the boringness once the action begins. Now we better shut up, I can sense Byakuya glaring at us", he whispered back at her. Karin glanced over the road to the other bush. She felt the angry glare too.

"That is a good idea", she whispered and they both returned to sitting in silence. It was really uncomfortable because the ground was wet from the rain before. Karin wrapped her arms around herself and tried to warm herself.

"Stop moving, it's annoying", Ichigo whispered to her. She glared at him getting the urge to kick him out of the bush. She knew Byakuya would skin her alive if she did.

"You two SHUT UP!" Toushiro whispered from the tree above them. He and Renji were sitting there, ready attack the soldiers from above. Karin and Ichigo threw almost identical glares at him. Renji was resisting the urge to start howling with laughter. He was shaking and biting his hand.

"They're coming!" Toushiro announced noticing the group of about twenty or thirty soldiers in the end of the road. Everyone turned to serious and concentrated in mere seconds. Karin moved her legs, ready to bounce out of the bush any second now. They were supposed to wait for the mark from Byakuya.

"ATTACK!" the said man yelled when the first soldiers had passed their hiding place. Everyone jumped out of the bushes and attacked the soldiers. They managed to defeat at least ten of them before they realized what was going on.

The soldiers drew their swords ready to fight the freedom fighters. Three soldiers surrounded Karin, all of them smirking widely thinking that they were the lucky ones to go against a girl. Karin answered their smirks with her evil grin and jumped towards the first guy. He fell down faster than his friends were able to realize what happened.

Karin quickly spun around and pierced the next guy's chest. She drew her sword away and turned towards the last guy. She noticed he had turned around and was running away. Also some other soldiers were following him while the rest surrounded Byakuya, Ikkaku and Yumichika. Toushiro and Renji were farther fighting four other soldiers.

"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!" Byakuya yelled to Karin and Ichigo. They nodded and sprinted after the escaping soldiers. Meanwhile Toushiro and Renji managed to beat the soldiers they were fighting against and ran after Karin and Ichigo.

The road curved to right and then to left allowing the soldiers to disappear when they reached the curves before their chasers. This didn't slow the duo down, quite the opposite. The both ran even faster but came to a quick stop noticing what was waiting for them.

A group of about fifty soldiers was standing on the road with their blue-haired commander smirking in the frontline. Karin and Ichigo stared at the man with eyes wide. He had blue tattoos in the corners of his eyes and something what looked like a part of a broken mask on the right side of his face. He was wearing white hakama and an open white jacket which showed the hole in his stomach.

He was one of the captains in Aizen's army: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.

"Take a look at this. Seems like we finally have managed to take a few freedom fighters as prisoners. Seize them!" he commanded. The soldiers held their swords pointing towards the chests of Karin and Ichigo slowly walking forward. Neither of the duo wanted to get caught so they turned around and started to run back to the direction they had came from.

"We can't lead them to Byakuya and the others. Let's continue straight!" Karin said as they reached the first curve. Ichigo nodded and they both ran straight to the forest. The soldiers followed right behind them not even looking down the road.

* * *

Toushiro and Renji were staring in front of them mouths hanging open. They had just witnessed Karin and Ichigo running straight to the forest like they had an army behind them and in mere seconds the 'army' came to view and followed them to the forest.

"We'd better go save them", Toushiro said and they both exited the road walking to the forest from different place than the soldiers. They weren't stupid; they knew they could never beat so many soldiers without the moment of surprise.

They just followed the sounds of an 'army' running through the forest, which was pretty easy. Even a small 'army' makes a lot of noise.

* * *

Meanwhile Byakuya, Ikkaku and Yumichika had beaten the rest of the soldiers. They were now collecting the weapons from the slain men.

"I wonder how long those four will take to beat those guys", Ikkaku said staring down the road longingly. He clearly wanted to fight more. Byakuya glared at him.

"They know we're supposed to meet in Inuzuri if we get separated. So now we'll go to wait for them there", he said turning around and walking away. Ikkaku and Yumichika looked at each other shrugging and hurried after their captain.

* * *

Karin and Ichigo had jumped into a bush as soon as they were sure the soldiers didn't see them anymore. Or rather, Karin had pushed Ichigo in the bush and jumped after him. Ichigo was now laying on the ground Karin sitting on top of him.

"You could have said 'hide' instead of pushing me to a bush", Ichigo whispered angrily. Karin slapped a hand to his mouth to prevent him from speaking anymore. Unfortunately she also covered his nose making it impossible for Ichigo to breathe.

He started to squirm under the girl trying to grab her hand to pull it away from his face. Karin noticed this and lifted her hand glaring at him as a warning to stay quiet. Ichigo returned the glare but didn't say anything. They both were tense and ready to run again.

The soldiers had slowed down and were now jogging and examining their surroundings to spot the duo. They weren't used to examining a dark forest and the last soldiers were just passing them when everything went wrong.

Ichigo sneezed.

Immediately the soldiers had surrounded the bush and were pointing their swords at Karin and Ichigo. Karin lifted her arms above her head and glared at Ichigo. He glared back.

"IDIOT! WHO SNEEZES WHEN HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE HIDING?" Karin screamed at Ichigo. He sat up making Karin fall to the ground since she was still sitting on top of him.

"WELL YOU DIDN'T NEED TO PUSH ME INTO A RASBERRY BUSH! I'M ALLERGIC TO RASBERRY FLOWERS!" he yelled back, holding his hands above his head to show the soldiers he wasn't about to attack. Karin sat up.

"HOW THE HELL SHOULD I HAVE KNOWN THAT? YOU SHOULD HAVE TRIED TO HOLD IT!" Karin screamed back at him. The soldiers pointing their swords at the two of them were staring at them confused and amused. These were the much feared freedom fighters?

"Someone silence them", Grimmjow muttered entering the scene holding hands to cover his ears. Two of the soldiers nodded and hit the duo with the hilts of their swords. Ichigo fainted immediately but Karin turned to stare at the man who hit her.

"HEY! WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?" she yelled at him holding the back of her head. The man looked at his sword and back at the girl glaring at him. He shrugged and hit harder. This time Karin went unconscious too.

"Ah, peace and quiet", Grimmjow sighed removing his hands from his ears. The two men who knocked Ichigo and Karin out swung them over their shoulders carrying them out of the forest.

"Karin sure has a hard head", Toushiro muttered staring after the soldiers. They had found them just when the yelling had started. Renji shook his head.

"We need to save Ichigo!" he said causing Toushiro to glare at him.

"Oh, and no matter what happens to Karin?" he asked coldly. Renji just shrugged standing up from their hiding place.

"She ain't my best friend. And best friends always rescue each other", he said as Toushiro stood up too. He glared at the taller man so angry that he had to take a step away.

"You're an idiot. We're saving them both", he said starting to follow after the soldiers. Renji looked after him a little scared of the boy but followed him nonetheless.

* * *

**I had fun writing this. It was easy chapter to write.**

**To those who also read my other story 'Three Things': I'm going to update it next. I was going to update it before this but my inspiration just gave me ideas for this story.**

**To those who haven't read it, I recommend it. It's mostly a humor story too but has more HitsuKarin fluff than this one. **

**Please tell me what you think and review!**

**Big hug to all of you!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Warning: some bad language in this chapter! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or the characters. Would be fun though.**

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Renji and Toushiro spied from the trees as Grimmjow commanded his men to lift the unconscious Karin and Ichigo into a wagon and drove off. The wagon was pulled by two horses because of the condition of the road. Any vehicle with motor would have broken jus about immediately.

That was fortunate for Renji and Toushiro, because otherwise they could never follow the kidnappers of their friends. Another fortunate thing was that it was middle of night and it was new moon. They were able to walk along the road instead of scrambling in the forest.

Inside the wagon Karin and Ichigo were slowly starting to regain consciousness only to realize that both of their hands had been tied above their heads. Karin was first on fully awake. She gave the robe few tugs before sighing a bit. Those soldiers knew how to tie people up.

Karin glanced around herself looking for something she could use to escape. No sharp objects were left near her. Another sigh. She decided to at least have someone to complain to. Because her hands were otherwise occupied (aka tied) she used her feet to slap Ichigo's cheeks to wake him up too.

"Nhhhh… Five more minutes", the boy mumbled trying to get away from Karin's feet. She glared at him straight into his nose with her heel. Ichigo's eyes snapped open and he instinctively tried to cover his nose with his hands only to realize he was tied up.

"What happened?" he asked after a confused checking of his surroundings. Karin glared at him angrily.

"You sneezed", she said shortly. Ichigo looked a bit confused before his eyes widened as he was able to recall the previous events.

"It was your fault", he said scowling at the girl only to earn a heel to his chin. He hit the back of his head to the side of the wagon. The four soldiers assigned to watch over the duo shared an unsure glance. Should they stop them or ignore them.

"STOP KICKING ME!" Ichigo yelled trying to kick back. He managed to get a pretty good hit to side only managing to make the girl even angrier. Her next kick knocked Ichigo out of breathe.

"You two, SHUT UP! I can't sleep when you're fighting", an annoyed Grimmjow poked his head from the front of the wagon. Karin glared at him when Ichigo just tried to turn enough to see the man. He pulled his head away before Ichigo managed to glance over his shoulder.

Meanwhile one of the soldiers watching over their prisoners got up and walked closer to Karin to take a closer look on her.

"When ignoring that scowl on your face you seem to be pretty cute. How about a smile", he said kneeling down in front of Karin grabbing her face with his calloused hand. Karin's glare turned harder.

"How about you disappear", she spat and headbutted the man straight between his eyes. He cried surprised and fell on the floor holding the bridge of his nose.

"Clearly a devil's spawn", another man said walking to check his comrade. He looked at Karin with as much contempt as he was able. Karin glared back growling warningly. Ichigo glanced between Karin and the soldier worriedly, though clearly annoyed to with the man's insults.

"But you have to admit, she clearly _is_ a woman", third one said walking to the other two soldiers staring at Karin hungrily. She backed as much away from the man as she was able. He walked straight to her, kicking Ichigo to ribcage while passing him, and licked his lips.

Karin looked at the man disgusted and when he was close enough kicked him right between his legs with as much force as she was able. Never had anyone within a mile's range heard so high-pitched scream.

Grimmjow's ears twitched and he shuddered visibly. Now he was angry. No one seemed to realize how sensitive his ears were. He walked inside the wagon rage flaming in his eyes.

His gaze however changed into a surprised one as he saw the four of his men. One of them was unconscious on the floor, holding his crotch, and the other three were fighting against the girl they had caught.

She was kicking the men with more fury than Grimmjow had ever seen anyone use. Ichigo was trying to avoid getting kicked too.

Grimmjow had to jump out of the way when Karin kicked one of the men so hard that he flew out of the wagon. The two men left were backing away from her, one holding his nose which was bleeding and the other trying to cover what looked like a bite mark.

"She's tied up and four men lose to her? Are you men or wussies?" Grimmjow asked staring at the (now only) three men in the wagon.

"She's strong for someone so tiny! And has a hell of a kick", the one with assumedly a broken nose. Grimmjow rolled his eyes to him.

"Do I have to do everything by myself? If she kicks you, you need to tie her legs too", he said grabbing some robe from the corner. When he was within Karin's range she threw her leg at him. He grabbed it with no difficulty whatsoever.

"Hmm, you're right, she is a strong one", he said holding tightly on the leg as Karin tried to pull it back. "But she's still just a human. Human's can do nothing", he breathed leaning closer to that his face was right in front of Karin's. She glared at him angrily.

"Your leader is a human!" Karin growled at him. He chuckled.

"Maybe he was, but he has long ago surpassed the line between a human and a greater being", he said taking Karin's other leg too and tying them tightly together. Karin winced in pain as he tightened the knot one last time.

"Now you'll kick no one", he said patting her cheek with a mad grin. Karin did the only thing she could. She bit his hand.

"AGHH! You bitch!" he yelled drawing his hand back. It had clear bite marks which already started bleeding a bit.

"What are you, a dog?" Ichigo muttered under his breath, so quietly no one else than Karin heard him. She smirked at him.

"If we wouldn't need you both for finding out the place freedom fighters are hiding in I'd kill you", Grimmjow growled at Karin before turning around and walking back to the front of the wagon.

"One of you two gets to put a gag to the little bitch", he said over his shoulder throwing a piece of fabric to them. The one Karin had bitten grabbed it, looked at Karin glaring at him challengingly and pushed the cloth to his friend.

* * *

Toushiro and Renji were pretty sure something has happened inside the wagon. Why did they think so? Well, they had heard the yelling and seen a man fly out of the wagon.

"Wanna bet it was Karin who threw him out?" Renji asked. Toushiro shot a cold glare at him.

"Not if you don't want to. But I really admire her will of fighting. They're surrounded by enemies and most likely restrained in one way or another but she still throws people out", Renji said staring after the wagon. They were closing on to another village, Junrin'an, and the morning was coming.

Both of the men hoped that the soldiers would stop for at least couple of hours so that the duo could rest for a bit.

"The soldiers need to sleep too!" Renji complained with a big yawn. Toushiro was starting to look worried as he stared into the horizon where the sun was rising.

"You know, whit these outfits we'll get caught immediately when it gets brighter", he said gesturing towards the battle outfits of freedom fighters. Sure, they were handy in fights but every single person knew the outfit.

"Oh shit, you're right! We need to buy new clothes. How much money do you have?" Renji asked starting to dig his pockets. Toushiro checked his.

"Nothing. And I really doubt you have any either", he said looking down the road. The wagon was barely within sight. Almost all of Grimmjow's men were walking, some behind the wagon, most in front of it.

"Yup, no money", Renji said turning his pockets around. Toushiro sighed.

"We'll just need to steal some cloaks. I really don't like to steal from the citizens but I don't think we have any choice", he said. Renji nodded in agreement and the two continued to follow the wagon.

With every moment they grew more and more worried since they spotted no small paths they could use to get to the village without being seen. Junrin'an was a richer village than Inuzuri and some of its citizens actually didn't mind having Aizen as a king.

"I guess we'll just have to hope no one realizes who we are when we enter the village. And if they do, we'll just have to hope they hate Aizen", Toushiro muttered as Junrin'an appeared within their sight.

"With my luck we won't get caught", Renji told smirking. Toushiro raised his eyebrow at him.

"I rarely get caught for any of the tricks I do around our village. I have some kind of guardian angel watching over me", he explained with a solemn face. Toushiro sighed defeated.

"We're screwed", he mumbled as they entered the village.

It was still quit early morning so they saw only few villagers who disappeared to the shadows as soon as they saw the two men. They didn't want to bother them but neither wanted to be seen with the men.

The soldiers, having entered about half an hour before Toushiro and Renji, had already found a place to stay and there was no trace of them.

"We should try to find out where they will be staying. Otherwise they might leave without noticing", Toushiro said. Renji nodded agreeing and they went to look for any motels in the village.

A Toushiro-sized person suddenly bumped into Renji. The red-head glared at the figure with short black hair, which stuck into every single way, and an over-sized t-shirt. His dark eyes met light brown ones as the glare was returned with an equal amount of irritation.

"Watch where you walk boy!" Renji said and the glare he was receiving flared. Toushiro noticed a fight was about to break out.

"Renji, don't be an idiot", he snapped at the red-head. Renji turned to look at him and was met by a cold glare.

"Do you know where is the motel the soldiers that came earlier are using?" Toushiro asked politely. The black haired person looked at him curiously.

"It's that way, right at the edge of the village. But judging by your outfits you shouldn't just walk into the motel." Toushiro shrugged. They'd need to check if they could rescue Karin and Ichigo already, though usually people were easiest to rescue during traveling.

"We'll just avoid the soldiers. Thanks for your help", Toushiro said and dragged Renji after him before the man had a change to say something insulting to their helper.

"Why didn't you let me tease the boy more? He seemed like a person with a lot of fire", he said glancing over his shoulder when Toushiro finally let go of him. The white haired youth rolled his eyes without looking at Renji. If he hadn't dragged the man away there would have been a fight.

"There is no need to bother the citizens of this village. It's clear that they don't really want us here", he said looking at a young man walking to the opposite direction when he saw them. He heaved a sigh. It was hard to fight for people's freedom when they were afraid of them.

"Yep, you got that right", Renji answered looking around the empty streets. The sight was a bit depressing.

"Hey look, those people aren't running away!" he exclaimed pointing in front of them. Toushiro followed his finger to see where he was pointing at and saw three men running _towards _them. He squinted his eyes to see them better. When he saw their outfits he grabbed Renji's collar.

"C'mon! Those are soldiers of the Kingdom of Hollowes! We need to get away from the middle of the road if we're going to fight them", he said running back to the direction they had came from. Renji ran too, but had already unsheathed his sword.

They ran around a corner and almost run into a wall. It was a dead-end.

"Looks like we'll just fight here", Renji smirked and flexed his fingers grasping the hilt of his sword. Toushiro pulled his sword from his back. It was almost as tall as he was, though mostly because he was quite short.

The soldiers, who had known the turn would be a dead-end, approached slowly with grins on their faces. All of them were holding similar simple katanas.

"Looks like you can escape no more. I suppose you're friends of the little bitch and the boy", the tallest one said. He was almost equal height with Renji. Toushiro growled at him and Renji moved his sword in front of himself.

"They're too scared to say anything!" another one mocked. The two other men were closer to Toushiro's height, only few inches of difference between them. Renji opened his mouth to shot something back at the men but Toushiro stepped on his toes.

Renji hissed in surprise but didn't miss Toushiro's warning glance. _Don't be taunted by them! Keep your cool!_

"Couldn't you just freeze them and we'd get out of here? Would be much easier", Renji complained under his breath. Toushiro glared at him and kicked his shin. Renji yelped in surprise.

"You know that I don't want everyone to know about Hyorinmaru's special ability", he muttered back looking at his sword. It was one of the few swords of freedom fighters which had magical powers in them.

"Ah, yes, you're saving it for more difficult enemies. But there is really no need to use it against there, that I understand", Renji said loud enough for the soldiers to hear. The tallest gritted his teeth.

"Attack!" he commanded and the soldiers bolted towards Renji and Toushiro. The two shared a glance before dodging attacks aimed at them. Renji was now fighting the tallest soldier and his shorter friend. Ironically Toushiro's enemy was shortest.

"So I'll get to beat only one of you? You think Renji is the one you should fear? You really know nothing", Toushiro almost laughed as he easily blocked all of the soldiers attacks with his sword. With a quick move Toushiro forced the man to retreat farther from him. The soldier was already panting.

"See, you're no opponent to me", Toushiro said taking two quick steps and with a quick turn of his wrist he made the man's sword fly away from his hand. He looked after it surprised before turning back to Toushiro, shaking with fear.

The teal eyed youngster sighed. He could never kill an unarmed man who was so terrified. So instead he used the hilt to knock the man out. He'd figure out what to do with him later. After making sure the man was unconscious Toushiro turned to see how Renji was doing.

The red-head seemed to have no problem in fending off the two soldiers, he just didn't seem to get a change to attack. Toushiro was just wondering if he should help his friend when the shorter man hit the wall beside him, head cracking to the wall with a not-so-promising sound.

Both Renji and Toushiro stared at the black-haired youngster they had met before. Seemed like it was because of the kick of their helper that the soldier had flown to the wall.

"Hey you're the boy from before!" Renji said surprised and hit the last man in the face with his elbow making him fell to the ground. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard your fighting and decided to check what was wrong. Figured you'd need some help." Renji stared at the light brown eyes again, feeling the irritation from before to rise again.

"And I'm a girl by the way. Name is Tatsuki", she revealed. Toushiro's eyes widened in surprise, but he had to admit, her voice sounded girly. Renji wasn't so ready to believe her.

"You can't be! Your hair is like a boy's, you dress like a boy and have an attitude of a boy!" Renji exclaimed, eyes moving from Tatsuki's eyes to lower without any particular thought. Tatsuki raised an eyebrow annoyed.

"If you're expecting me to lift my shirt to confirm that I'm a girl you can wait forever. Not gonna happen, jerk!" she snapped at him hitting his jaw.

"And you punch like a man", Renji mumbled with blood coming from his mouth. He had bitten his tongue.

"Thanks! That's the first compliment I've heard you say!" Tatsuki said reminding Toushiro of another raven haired girl.

"Wasn't compliment", Renji mumbled silently. Toushiro was sure Tatsuki heard it too, she was standing closer to the red-head, but she decided to ignore him.

"So, why are two freedom fighters trying to challenge Grimmjow's squad? You must know you could never win against him", Tatsuki asked, looking at Toushiro. He hesitated. They had just met Tatsuki so how could they trust her.

"We're trying to save our friends. They got captured by Grimmjow", Renji explained to Toushiro's surprise. He thought the man already hated the girl they had just met.

"I figured you'd might be", Tatsuki answered, not surprised at all. Renji and Toushiro stared at her confused.

"I saw them carry an orange-headed man whose hands were tied into the motel. You'll never be able to rescue him from there, they're guarding the whole motel way too carefully", Tatsuki told. Toushiro had to admire the inspection skills of the girl.

"I figured that much too. Our best shot is when they're moving them", he voiced his earlier thoughts. Tatsuki shook her head apologetically.

"You won't be able to do that. Grimmjow is riding in the same wagon with the prisoners, he always is. Makes sure they can't be rescued", she told and sorrow crossed her face. In a second it was gone and replaced by determination.

"I could help you. I know Grimmjow's squad's way of acting, favorite places to stop, everything there is to know about them. And I can fight." The girl's request surprised both Renji and Toushiro.

"Let me get this straight: you want to come with two guys you've barely met on a mission with changes not much higher from zero of succeeding. Are you frigging serious?" Renji asked. Tatsuki nodded, smirking a bit at Renji.

"Hey, why not? You could use some help! Or are you freedom fighters so chauvinists that you won't accept a girl fighting beside you?" she asked her expression slowly turning grim. Toushiro and Renji weren't able to suppress their smiles. Renji even laughed a bit.

"We have nothing against it. One of the comrades we're trying to rescue is a girl. She might be the only girl in our village but she is also one of the best fighters", Toushiro said smiling gently. Tatsuki glanced at him raising an eyebrow before smiling widely.

"Well that's settled then! I'll join your merry group! Just come to my house, you need some other clothes and I'm sure food wouldn't sound bad either", she said.

"What do we do to these?" Toushiro asked pointing the ground. The three unconscious men were still lying there. Tatsuki thought for a while before answered with a bright smirk.

"We undress them of course!"

Toushiro and Renji almost choked. Both stared at the black-haired girl coughing a bit.

"Tatsuki, wasn't it?" Tatsuki nodded. "Why would we want to undress our unconscious enemies?" Renji asked carefully. He knew the girl packed a punch.

"To take their uniforms so it would be easier to follow their squad", she answered blinking her eyes. "Why else? Don't tell me you have dirty minds", she said nudging Renji's arm. Said man's face was nearly same colored as his hair.

"Your idea is good. Renji, you take the tall man's clothes, we'll handle these", Toushiro said deciding to save his friend from any further embarrassment. Tatsuki glanced at Toushiro amusedly but did what he said nonetheless.

Soon they had stripped all of the soldiers out of their clothes (now they realized how good idea was it to knock them out instead of killing them; clothes would have been bloody and unusable) and tied them to each other with gag's in their mouths.

"Can we just leave them like that?" Renji asked suspiciously. All three soldiers were glaring at the trio holding their clothes.

"Yeah, no worries", Tatsuki said waving her hand. "I know few people in this village who'll take care of them. "

"I thought people in this village didn't like freedom fighters", Renji said. Tatsuki sighed and looked at the man like he was five years old.

"Most don't, but of course there are always exceptions. There are many who want to get rid of Aizen", she told.

"Can you trust those people?" Toushiro asked. He had taken the role of a captain because someone needed to make sure they would get somewhere. And not get caught if possible. Tatsuki rolled her eyes at Toushiro.

"Of course! I've known them for my whole life", she said and the sorrow flashed in her eyes again. Toushiro missed it, concentrating on checking if anyone else had seen what happened, but Renji managed to catch it before she regained her composure.

"Good. Then we should move to somewhere safer. Is your house close by?" Toushiro asked. Tatsuki nodded and started to jog along the street. She gestured the boys to follow her. They followed her quickly, warily glancing around themselves.

Just after a corner Tatsuki knocked on a door. It opened up a crack.

"It's me, Tatsuki. I just wanted to ask you to take care of few soldiers in the alley next to your house. They're all tied up, just need a place to stay", she told to the red-haired woman peeking around the door. She nodded and closed the door. The boys were able to hear yelling from inside, indicating the people there were getting ready to grab a few soldiers.

After that the boys followed Tatsuki through some alleys and over a fence before reaching the door of a small house. Tatsuki picked the key from under the flower pot next to the door. The flowers had withered a long time ago.

"You can see straight to the motel from the upper floor. There is a spare room where you can sleep if you want to. I'll bring you some food", Tatsuki said pointing at the stairs. Renji and Toushiro nodded and climbed upstairs.

"Oi Tatsuki! Which door?" Renji yelled when he noticed several doors on either side of the hallway. He really didn't want to go to Tatsuki's room accidentally, he already knew the girl had a temper.

"Second on left!" came the answer from downstairs. Toushiro opened the door to reveal a small room with two bunk beds on either side of the room. There was also a small cupboard and a desk in front of the window. Toushiro walked to the window and opened it letting fresh air in. It seemed like the room hadn't been used in a while.

Tatsuki opened the door and came in carrying a tray with two sandwiches. Renji took one thanking Tatsuki. Toushiro didn't leave the window, just stared at the motel.

"Do you live by yourself? It's a pretty big house for only one", Renji asked trying to get rid of the silence. It was unnerving.

"Yeah. I used to live with a friend who loved to invite people to stay over, which is the reason for the extra rooms and beds, but she isn't here anymore", Tatsuki answered staring at the floor. Toushiro glanced at her over his shoulder noticing how sad the girl seemed to be. Renji wrapped and arm awkwardly over her shoulder.

Tatsuki lifted her head to look at Renji. She stared at his eyes for a moment before sighing a bit. "Get some sleep. The soldiers won't leave before tomorrow", she said before leaving the room.

"She's right. We need to sleep", Toushiro said fighting back a yawn. Renji stared at the closed door with an unreadable expression.

"Yeah, maybe so", he said shaking himself out of his thoughts. He threw himself to the bed and closed his eyes. Toushiro looked at his friend worriedly before lying down on the bed on the other side.

In five minutes both of the boys were deep asleep. In the next room Tatsuki was sitting in the desk glaring out of the window.

* * *

In the motel Karin and Ichigo were sitting on the floor hands tied behind their backs. Grimmjow was sitting on a comfortable chair and eating chicken legs.

"Are you two hungry?" he asked mockingly waving a leg around. Karin glared at him and Ichigo just ignored everything. Both were extremely hungry but would never admit it.

"Pouting aren't you?" Grimmjow laughed. Karin turned her eyes away from the blue-haired man and stared out of the window. It was already midday. She wondered if they would leave once the sun set or if they would spent a night in the village.

She also wondered if the rest of their group had already returned to the village and told her father that she and Ichigo were missing, most likely dead. She sighed.

"Are you depressed girlie?" Grimmjow asked, earning another glare from the raven haired girl. He laughed.

"I really didn't think Kenpachi would accept girls to his fighters. But for some reason you are one of them. Quite interesting", he said putting the leg back to plate and leaning closer to examine Karin's face. She turned her eyes away from the man.

"Well, that makes no difference", he said and Karin inwardly sighed in relief. It wouldn't be good if they found out she was the daughter of the leader of freedom fighters.

"Karin, you have any ideas about how to get outta here?" Ichigo mumbled when Grimmjow moved to take a nap. Karin shook her head.

"Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?" she muttered back remembering back to all the times he and Renji had teased her.

"I know how to cause problems, not how to get out of them", he answered. Karin had to suppress a snort.

"Maybe you could try to seduce him", Ichigo suggested. Karin turned to look at him flabbergasted.

"Have you lost your frigging mind? You would succeed in seducing him better than me!" she exclaimed. Ichigo chuckled dryly.

"Yeah, you're probably right. You're almost a boy", he said and got a hard kick to the nose.

"OW! Why did you do that?" he asked glaring at Karin angrily. She had just about the same expression.

"Even if something is true that doesn't mean I want to hear it all the time", she growled. Suddenly she was hit by a chicken bone.

"Can you two shut up? I'm trying to sleep", Grimmjow growled holding another bone threateningly. Karin stared at the bone that had hit her and Ichigo at the one in Grimmjow's hand.

"Did you throw a bone at me?" Karin asked confused. Grimmjow sighed.

"Why did I volunteer to watch over you? You're the most annoying prisoners I've ever had", he mumbled and turned his back to Karin and Ichigo. The latter had begun to try to get some sleep while Karin was trying to reach the bone with her feet. She got it and showing some strechability managed to put it to her pocket.

* * *

Night came quickly for Toushiro and Renji. They both slept during the day and woke up when sun had just set. Tatsuki was sitting on the desk in their room looking out of the window.

"What are you doing here?" Toushiro asked. He had woken up first. Tatsuki looked over her shoulder.

"Good, you're awake. I was just about to wake you up. The soldiers are getting ready move", she answered looking out of the window again. Toushiro was out of the bed in seconds and looking out of the window. He saw how the soldiers carried their bags around and were harnessing the horses in front of the wagon.

"Have you seen Karin and Ichigo yet?" Toushiro asked worry in his voice. Tatsuki raised her eyebrows quizzically.

"Our friends. Their prisoners", Toushiro cleared. He realized they hadn't mentioned any names before.

"Ah, of course. I should have guessed. I don't know your name by the way. The red-head is Renji, right? I heard you using his name", Tatsuki said looking at Toushiro curiously. The white-haired man was impressed by how well Tatsuki was able to remember Renji's name.

"I'm Toushiro and yes, he is Renji", he simply told waving into the direction of the half-sleeping man. Tatsuki nodded.

"We should get going soon. It would be best if we don't wear the uniforms yet, let's wait until we reach the capital. There are enough soldiers so we won't be recognized", Tatsuki said. The uniforms were nicely folded on the desk.

Toushiro nodded in agreement. He was pretty sure that in a smaller squad people would notice three unfamiliar faces better than in a place where there were many squads. The capital, Las Noches, was the place where Aizen's army's headquarters was.

"I have normal traveling clothes for you two. Those outfits are too easy to recognize", Tatsuki said pointing at the two piles next to the uniforms. Toushiro took a grey hooded cloak from the pile. It was just about right size for him.

"It think those clothes will fit you, I'm not so sure about Renji", she said. Renji, who had finally gotten out of bed, walked to the desk check the clothes.

"These are probably a little short from sleeves and legs", he said, suddenly pulling his shirt off. Tatsuki quickly turned her head to look out of the window. Renji also took his pants off and put on the clothes Tatsuki had brought.

He was right, the legs and the sleeves of the shirt were too short, however the grey cloak, similar to the one Toushiro get had, was just perfect.

"I'll go to pack my stuff", Tatsuki said, noticing Toushiro didn't start changing clothes. When she had left the room Toushiro changed his outfit to the clothes Tatsuki had given. The clothes fit Toushiro much better than Renji's fit him.

"We should somehow hide the swords. We don't look so suspicious that way", Toushiro noted when Renji was tying his sword to his belt. Renji shrugged and tied it to his belt moving the coat to cover it.

"Is this enough?" He asked with a big smirk. Toushiro rolled his eyes and tied Hyorinmaru to his back. He put the coat over it and pulled the hood up to cover the hilt. Renji examined the result.

"That should do it. If someone doesn't bump to your back no one should be able to notice it", he said giving a pat to Toushiro's pat. This surprised the younger man making him almost fall. He glared at Renji over his shoulder after regaining his balance.

Tatsuki knocked on the door. "Are you two ready? We should get out of here now", she said. Renji opened the door to let the short girl in.

"I packed these for you. We only need to stuff the uniforms and your clothes to them too and we're ready. And don't worry, I packed enough food for three days", she told throwing two backpacks to Renji and Toushiro. Toushiro caught his and Renji's hit him into his face.

The red-head caught the bag before it fell to his toes. Tatsuki stifled her laughter with her hand.

In five minutes the three were hiding near the motel waiting for the soldiers to leave. Finally the door opened and Grimmjow walked out followed by two men. One was holding Ichigo's tied arms and forcing him to walk to the wagon. The other carried Karin, wrists and ankles were tied and a gag in her mouth, on his shoulder. She was still struggling and obviously cursing at her carrier.

Toushiro tensed up and a low growl escaped his lips when he saw them. Tatsuki slapped the back of his head.

"Be quiet! We can't afford them noticing us!" she whispered harshly when Toushiro turned to look at her. He nodded, and settled for glaring at Grimmjow. When the man carrying Karin threw her into the wagon he growled again. Renji noticed this with a small smirk appearing on his face.

Grimmjow climbed to the place next to the driver. "Let's go already", he said and the driver whipped his whip as a sign to the horses to begin moving. Some of the soldiers were already walking in front of the wagon and the rest followed after it.

Tatsuki, Renji and Toushiro waited a few minutes before starting to follow the soldiers. They were walking far enough so that the soldiers wouldn't notice they were followed even if they decided to have a conversation.

"So Toushiro, you have a crush on Karin, don't ya?" Renji asked nudging the younger man's arm. He looked at Renji surprised and looked away quickly. He opened and closed his mouth trying to figure out something to say.

"So I'm right. Isn't that just cute", Renji cooed and Tatsuki chuckled. The two of them were getting along just fine.

"Is it that obvious?" Toushiro mumbled silently still keeping his eyes away from Renji's face. The smirk on the red-head's face just grew bigger.

"C'mon kid! A blind man would see it!" he laughed ruffling Toushiro's hair. He swatted the hand away and glared at the taller man.

"I am NOT a kid!" he growled warningly. Renji was only a year older than he was. Renji backed away. He knew that people's strength should never been evaluated by their height. The strongest punches he had received came from the shortest people he knew.

"You look like a kid, no offense", Tatsuki said. Toushiro glared at her too. "But it's also obvious you like the black-haired girl. I mean, I've just met you and still when you saw here it was clear to me!" she continued and laughed when Toushiro turned his head away.

"Hey Toushiro, you know you're not the only one. I could bet everyone in the village has had a crush on her sometime. I'm not sure if everyone would go on a doomed rescue mission to save her though", Renji said patting Toushiro's shoulder. He nodded not saying anything.

"I'm sure she'll appreciate it when you save her! You can be her knight in a shining armor", Tatsuki joined in. Toushiro seemed to be somehow down.

"If I save her. If you forgot, we're going against the whole army. And there are only three of us!" Toushiro said. Tatsuki snorted.

"And we're ready to beat anyone who'll cross our road! C'mon, are you a man or a little girl?" Tatsuki asked trying to get a reaction out of Toushiro.

"And we don't necessarily have to beat up the whole army, it's enough if we just can save Karin and Ichigo!" Renji joined in. Toushiro sighed before smiling a bit.

"I guess you're right. But I still think we're all crazy", he said. Tatsuki and Renji laughed.

"Yes we are, but if we weren't no one would be able to save them!" Renji exclaimed.

* * *

In the wagon Karin had gotten her gag out of her mouth again. Or rather it was taken out of her mouth so that she would be able to eat and drink something.

"Do you think the rest are worried about us? Will anyone try to save us?" she asked Ichigo quietly. They were allowed to be alone since no one thought they would be able to get away.

"I know Renji will try to save me. It's our little agreement, never to leave one behind. And knowing the Shorty, Toushiro will be coming too. Renji is too dumb to succeed on his own. Yumichika and Ikkaku might be coming too, unless Byakuya stops them. He won't be coming that's for sure", Ichigo said. Karin didn't know whether to feel relieved or even more worried.

"They'll never be able to save us if were guarded like this!" she sighed struggling to make her hands move. She only got more burns around her wrists.

"Don't fight so much! You'll just end up hurting yourself", Ichigo said looking at the girl's struggling. She tried to bite the robes off now.

"I need to fight! I don't want to be a prisoner!" she said before hanging her head back. It was getting pretty tiring to fight, but at least most of the soldiers knew to fear her now.

"Try to save your strength. We might get a change to get away and if you're tired then we might get caught again", Ichigo said getting angry at the girl. She looked at him thinking about what he said.

"Hey you're right! You have a plan?" she asked getting exited. Ichigo's expression changed into a sheepish smile.

"Well… no…", he mumbled and Karin sighed.

"Maybe it'll be easier when they put us to some place which is not moving. We won't be guarded so much then", Ichigo said trying to cheer his companion up.

"Ya two planning an escape?" Grimmjow asked entering the wagon. Karin growled at him from instinct. Ichigo sighed rolling his eyes. No matter what he said the girl would never get it.

"The little beast is angry again", Grimmjow said patting Karin's head. She fought the urge to try and bite his hand again.

"We'll reach Las Noches a little after morning. Then you two will get a change to meet Aizen", Grimmjow told surprising both Karin and Ichigo. Neither of them realized how close Las Noches was nor that they would be taken to Aizen immediately.

"Ooh, are you scared? You should be, Aizen is pretty strong", he said patting Karin's cheek. She couldn't resist the urge to trip the blue-haired man with her legs and smirked satisfied when she heard the crack the man's head made when it hit the floor.

"I WILL KILL YOU!" Grimmjow growled angrily when he lifted his face. Fear flashed in Karin's eyes and she decided it had not been a good idea. Grimmjow grabbed her collar and pulled her up. She winced in pain when he lifted her feet off the ground.

"I'm sure one hostage will be enough for Aizen", Grimmjow growled moving his hand towards his sword. Karin was really scared now. She had no way to defend herself. Suddenly Grimmjow felt a kick in the back of his knee. Ichigo had moved behind him and kicked him rather hard.

He let go off Karin to stop his fall, making the girl fell off from the wagon. He had been holding her too close to the end of the wagon.

Karin grimaced when the ground hit all the air away from her lungs. The soldiers walking behind the wagon jumped out of the way surprised.

With a few deep breathes Karin tried to stood up. It was rather hard because her ankles were tied together, but she wouldn't give up.

"Someone, grab her!" Grimmjow commanded from the wagon. The rider had stopped the wagons as soon as he realized something (or someone) fell off, but the wagon was still a couple dozen feet away from the girl.

Karin felt a strong hand grab the back of her neck and pull her to her feet. She felt something hit her head hard and fell to the darkness.

"I didn't say knock her out but whatever", Grimmjow said grabbing the girl from the man. He tied her hands to a hook hanging from the wall of the wagon. Ichigo, who was tied in a similar way, looked at her worriedly.

"Don't worry boy, I won't kill her. She might be useful later now that I think about it", Grimmjow said noticing Ichigo's look. This however made the boy feel even more worried.

* * *

The group following behind the wagon noticed something happening immediately moved away from the road into the forest. Slowly they moved closer to the wagon to see what was going on.

"Karin!" Toushiro whispered when he saw the girl lying on the ground. Tatsuki slapped her hand over his mouth to prevent him from revealing their location, but kept her eyes glued on the girl.

This was the first time she saw her properly (first time she wasn't able to see her face) and was a bit surprised. The girl was shorter than her and also looked like she was couple of years younger too. Her face showed pain and anger but in her eyes was a determined fire burning.

She subconsciously tightened her hold of Toushiro's face when she saw the girl wince as one of the men lifted her from the ground. All three of them winced when he hit her in the head pretty hard. Toushiro's eyes were flaring with anger.

They watched the man carry the girl back to the wagon where the blue-haired commander was waiting. He lifted her and disappeared. Tatsuki and Renji shared a worried look. Grimmjow wasn't famous of being gentle towards his prisoners and definitely would not like one trying to run away. Toushiro was staring at the wagon so angrily that if looks could kill the blue-haired man would not be breathing anymore.

When the wagon started moving again Tatsuki, Renji and Toushiro climbed out of the bushes. Tatsuki and Renji kept looking at Toushiro worriedly.

"I'm sure they won't hurt her. They need her after all", Renji tried to make the smaller man relax. He didn't stop staring after the wagon for one second.

"Our best shot now is only to follow them and try to save her as soon as possible", Tatsuki said placing her hand gently on Toushiro's shoulder.

"And let's still not forget Ichigo. First of all, we need to save him too, but I'm sure he'll keep Karin as safe as he can. He is a lot smarter than he looks", Renji said. Toushiro nodded, finally relaxing a bit. But only a bit.

"We're lucky she was paired with him instead of you. Otherwise she would be screwed", he muttered angrily starting to walk after the wagon. Renji and Tatsuki hurried after him.

* * *

A bit later Karin started to wake up. She blinked her eyes a couple of times and winced, feeling the throbbing pain in the back of her head. She groaned trying to bury her head into her hands only to realize they were tied above her head. She groaned again.

"You're awake! That's good, I was a bit worried", she heard Ichigo exclaim next her and she winced again. The loud voice hurt her head.

"Not so loud!" she whispered blinking again. It was dark in the wagon, the lantern was turned off. It was rather good for Karin, she doubted she would have licked bright lights.

"Sorry. He hit you pretty hard didn't he?" he asked, now whispering. Karin nodded and realized Ichigo couldn't see it.

"Yup. And I guess I might have broken a few ribs when I fell. My chest hurts like hell", she moaned in pain when she turned a bit to try to look at Ichigo.

"I told you not to fight, didn't I? You should have listened. Now it'll be much harder to get away, especially if you have broken ribs!" Ichigo told angrily. Karin sighed.

"Yeah, I should have listened to you. Next time I'll listen, I promise", she mumbled, suddenly feeling really tired despite the fact she had just woken up. She yawned.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'll get some sleep", she muttered in a barely sensible voice before falling asleep. Almost right away she started to snore slightly.

"You won't listen to me next time, I know that. You're just like Renji!" Ichigo sighed and decided to get some sleep himself.

* * *

_No tapellaan vaan, ja mitataan mies ja tapellaan vaan, se on sun ties. Käy viivalle vaan, pian huomaat sen, mä koskaan luovu vapaudesta en, siis tapellaan vaan!_

_Well let's just fight, and measure the man, and let's just fight, it is your road. Come to the line, soon you'll notice that I never give up my freedom, so let's just fight!_

_

* * *

  
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**I had already decided that I would not use song quotes in this story, but then I heard the Finnish version of Get Off My Back from the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and thought it was perfect for my story. It describes Karin's attitude in my story.**

**So the song quote is from the song Tapellaan vaan, which means in English let's just fight. The translation is a bit awkward, I wasn't sure how to translate it.**

**Here is the link for the full song in Finnish. It has both Finnish and English subtitles, so everyone should understand it. And remember to remove the spaces!**

**http:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v=ZyDzPDaNBQY&playnext_from=TL&videos=jan5Dg0DaN0**

**I hope you liked the chapter, sorry that it took so long. I wrote a chapter for my other story and then had a huge writer's block. I knew what I wanted to write but didn't know how. Really annoying.**

**Please review, I love to know what you think!**

**Hugs!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach**

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* * *

  
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Karin and Ichigo were sleeping soundly when Grimmjow literally kicked them awake. Ichigo glared at him angrily and Karin tried to hide her wince as she noticed how her sides hurt.

"Welcome to Las Noches. You're never going to leave this place so I thought you'd want to see what it looks from the outside", the blue-haired man sniggered opening the door leading to the front of the wagon.

In front of the wagon was a huge city with white buildings and several really tall towers. In the middle was a huge dome which dominated the cityscape. After the wagon drove in from the gate Karin and Ichigo saw a really poor looking area. People from walking on the street looked at the wagon with fearful eyes. Karin scowled and glared at the dome.

"That's right girlie, that's the place Aizen lives in. You're not going to get there, you'll go to one of the towers where the cells are", Grimmjow said noticing Karin's glare. She looked at him over her shoulder coldly. Ichigo scowled at the man behind his back.

The wagon drove quickly along the streets towards the inner and richer parts of the city. Grimmjow left the door open so Karin and Ichigo were able to follow where they went. It was a sign of the fact he believed they would never get out of the cells alive. It had never happened before so why would it happen now?

Karin noticed that the richer the place was the more soldiers were around. And it also seemed like they were the people living there, not guarding peace. Karin stared as they just pushed other people out of their way and no one said anything. She growled angrily.

"Ooo, the little girl is angry", Grimmjow mocked. Then suddenly he flew out of the wagon, getting almost run over by the horses. Karin watched at him surprised before glancing over her shoulder.

Ichigo had his foot up and he was whistling like he hadn't done anything. Karin laughed at him and he smirked back.

"Didn't you tell me to be nice?" Karin asked the boy. He shrugged with the smirk still on his face.

"I was hungry then. I just didn't want to stare at his face anymore", Ichigo answered. Karin looked at him approvingly. She heard a low growl behind her and turned to face the _very _angry blue-haired man.

"You're dead!" he roared and bolted past Karin right towards Ichigo. Ichigo didn't even manage to look shocked, scared or anything like the situation would have usually made him look like before a dark haired and skinned man in a white uniform of Aizen's army was standing in front of him.

"Grimmjow, Aizen wants the hostages _alive_. You can't interrogate dead people", he said in a deep voice. Karin looked at him curiously, wondering how he was able to see anything from behind the white glasses which seemed to be non-see-throughable. **(No, I don't think that is an actual word)**

"He can survive with only one. Let me just kill that man, Tousen!" Grimmjow growled at him, but didn't start attacking again. Karin decided that the man must be in a higher position than Grimmjow.

"It's true we need only one, but it's better if we have two hostages. You have done well Grimmjow, I'm sure Aizen will reward you. You can go", the man said. Grimmjow glared at Ichigo one last time before bowing slightly to the dark skinned man and jumping off the wagon.

"Just tell me when you're done with them", he said walking away without looking back. Karin was a bit scared of the new man, because he had to be strong if Grimmjow was afraid of him. He turned to look at Karin and Ichigo.

"So you two are our enemies? Aizen shall meet you soon, but for now you'll be staying in the west tower", he said and snapped his fingers. The river whipped his whip and the horses started moving again. Neither Ichigo nor Karin had noticed when it had stopped.

"Who are you?" Karin asked finally after staring at the man for a while. Ichigo raised his eyebrows surprised at her bluntness and the fact she revealed they knew nothing about the enemy.

"My name is Tousen Kaname. I'm one of the three commanders in here, Aizen being the highest", he answered face expressionless. He somehow reminded the two freedom fighters of Byakuya with his expressions (or rather the lack of them).

Karin nodded and sat in silence for the rest of the way to the west tower. Ichigo glanced at her few times worriedly; it wasn't like her to be so quiet. When she noticed him she glared to let him know she was fine.

Karin looked at Tousen barely blinking occasionally. She felt even more uneasy around him than she had never felt with anyone. He had lifted his glasses to his forehead and she noticed his pupils were completely wide indicating that he was blind. Still he had a threatening aura around him.

Finally the wagon stopped in front of the huge tower. Tousen jumped swiftly down to ground and waved a couple of soldiers to escort Karin and Ichigo to their cells. The soldiers were much gentler than Grimmjow's soldiers had been with them.

Karin and Ichigo were allowed to walk on their own, only hands tied behind their backs (Karin's legs were untied) and both were glad to finally be able to move even a little bit. Tousen was walking behind them watching them carefully as they climbed the stairs up to almost the top of the tower.

"This will be the girl's room and the one across the hall shall be the boy's", he said as they reached the second highest floor of the tower. The soldiers escorting Karin and Ichigo nodded and opened the doors in question. The soldiers untied the duo's hands and pushed them to the rooms locking the doors behind them.

Karin's room was small and had only a bunk bed (which looked surprisingly comfortable), a closet full of white clothes for women and a chair and a desk. There was also a door which led to a tiny bathroom. Karin was however relieved that she had an own bathroom. There was even a shower.

On the other side of the room, in front of the small desk, was a window. It had no bars but they wouldn't have been needed. Through the window Karin saw the gate they had used to enter the city. An endless queue of people was walking through it.

Karin sat on the desk and placed her hand on the cool window. She gazed down to the city and felt angry at herself. She had got caught on her first mission. She fisted her hand and hit the window as hard as she was able.

Immediately she was glad she had worn gloves.

The window broke, sharp shards of glass falling towards the streets below. Karin's eyes widened and she instinctively looked around herself to make sure no one had seen. She gently removed the rest of the shards glad that the window hadn't had any wooden parts across it or someone might notice it was broken. Now she just had to make sure no one would spot the curtains swaying in the wind.

The shards she hid to the closet along with the chicken bone she had stolen earlier. With a final glance around to make sure everything looked the same as earlier she sat back to the desk.

She looked down and spotted a small hassle down below. She was way too high to see how many people were involved or what had happened, but someone sure was yelling hard because she was able to understand a word or two of it.

"Who… shard…face…bleeding!" someone was yelling. Karin blushed a bit as she realized they were probably yelling because of the shards she had accidentally thrown down. She put her head out of the window and yelled: "SORRY!"

She got no answer so she assumed the wind had stolen her words before they reached the people below. With a small half sigh half chuckle she jumped of the desk and started to inspect the room better.

After half an hour she put her ear against the door and hearing to footsteps she took the chicken bone and a medium sized shard of glass starting to shape the bone.

Ichigo's room was decorated in a similar way to Karin's, though the closet was full of men's clothes instead of women's. Otherwise the rooms were copies of each other.

The view from Ichigo's window opened towards the dome, in which Aizen lived, and the other three towers. He glared at the dome and looked curiously at the other towers. He wondered if there were people like them locked up or if they were just regular thieves and robbers.

Soon he got bored of glaring out of the window and sat down on his bed. He leaned his head to the wall and groaned. He knew it was most likely his fault he and Karin had been captured so it should be his responsibility to get them out. He just had no clue how he could do it.

"C'mon, think! You're supposed to be smart!" he groaned slapping his forehead. After thinking for a while he sighed and lay down on the bed.

He still had no idea how to save Karin and himself. He hoped Karin would have better ideas.

* * *

Renji, Toushiro and Tatsuki had entered the huge city shortly after the wagon. No one recognized them anymore and there were so many people that it was safe. Renji and Toushiro still weren't able to help looking warily around even though Tatsuki had told them not to.

"Stop it already! That only makes us look suspicious! Try to act normally if you know how to do so", she whispered angrily when they passed the guards at the gate. Toushiro nodded still not stopping. Renji however glanced at her and tried to relax.

"So, what makes you hate the Kingdom of Hollowes so much?" he asked trying to get rid of the uncomfortable silence. Tatsuki looked at him surprised and after staring at the red-head's dark eyes for a few seconds her gaze softened.

"Doesn't everyone hate it?" she asked with a small laugh with no humor in it. Toushiro stopped looking around himself too and looked at the girl. She looked sad.

"I think so, but you seem to have a personal reason. I mean, not every person would just join two people claiming to be freedom fighters if they have just met them", Renji said, showing he was a lot sharper than he looked like.

"You're right about that", Tatsuki said her gaze turning angry. She glared in front of her in silence for some time, scaring people walking in to the other direction.

"You can tell us. It seems like we need to hang out together for a while so it's nice to get to know each other better", Renji encouraged. Toushiro nodded slowly after a surprised glance at his friend. He had never seen the red-head act like this.

"Well, as you noticed, I like alone and that's all thanks to the Kingdom. My parents were both farmers, but they refused to be loyal to Aizen, refused to pay taxes. In the end, they joined to a group of soldiers who fought against the Kingdom, kinda like you freedom fighter, but not so organized. I haven't heard of them since, they're most likely dead", she told not looking at the boys.

"So they abandoned you?" Renji asked with contempt in his voice. Toushiro shook his head sadly. Many of the freedom fighters had some kind of memories of their families and some had told they had just been abandoned. Renji was one of them.

"NO! It's not like that!" Tatsuki exclaimed looking at Renji surprised. "They didn't want to leave, but they had to do something or they would have been killed, because they were opposing Aizen and his army so much. They told me that they'd come back if they could", she explained. Renji nodded and Toushiro glanced at him worriedly. He seemed to be his usual self, as much as he could in a situation where his best friend was imprisoned.

"I guess I jumped into conclusions", he said apologetically and scratched the back of his head with a small smile on his lips. Tatsuki shook her head.

"I understand it sounds like that", she said smiling back. Toushiro glanced between the two of them slowly starting to realize something. He wasn't sure if Renji had noticed it, but he was definitely interested in Tatsuki aka the red-head had a crush on her. Toushiro stifled a chuckle.

"It sounds like that is not the only reason why you hate the Kingdom of Hollowes so much", Toushiro finally decided to ask when Renji and Tatsuki seemed to have forgotten he was around and that she Tatsuki had been explaining something.

"Oh, right. It isn't the only reason, you're right about that. I used to live with my friend but the soldiers found out she was secretly helping the freedom fighters and took her away. I knew nothing about it and they somehow believed me and left me alone", she told with fury and sadness appearing to her eyes.

Renji and Toushiro were both extremely surprised. They knew some people who helped them from the outside had been imprisoned but they would have never guessed Tatsuki had a friend like that.

"What is her name? I'm in charge of a part of picking up the stuff we're given by people who help us", Toushiro said. He knew two of his contacts who had suddenly disappeared.

"She's Orihime. A bit taller than me, orange hair, big boobs", Tatsuki answered. Toushiro's eyes widened.

"She has been caught? She was always so nice and friendly and brought a lot of medical stuff. I have been worried about her when she hasn't come to our meeting place", he said staring at Tatsuki. She looked a bit surprised but also sad in the same time.

"Well, now you know. I thought that maybe if I helped you rescue your friends I could maybe find out what happened to her and maybe even be able to rescue her", she told in a small voice, like she was expecting the men to be angry at her.

"We can help you with that", Renji said and Toushiro nodded. Tatsuki was surprised.

"You will?" she asked blinking her eyes. Renji snorted.

"Isn't that obvious? You've already helped us and plan to help us to save our friends. If we ever manage to do it we'll help you rescue your friend", he said. Tatsuki opened her mouth to probably thank them but just then they heard a yell and saw Grimmjow fly out of the wagon.

"Wow, however did that sure wasn't thinking ahead", Tatsuki said staring at the man standing up with fury practically glowing from him. Renji and Toushiro stared at him worriedly, scared that soon either Karin or Ichigo would get seriously hurt.

The blue-haired man bolted back to the wagon and Toushiro and Renji hurried closer to be able to hear what happened. They heard muffled speaking from inside but weren't able to understand the words. Suddenly Grimmjow jumped out of the wagon and walked away.

The wagon started moving again and Toushiro spotted a dark skinned man he recognized.

"That's Tousen! He's a commander, only Aizen is above him", he whispered to Renji and Tatsuki staring after the wagon. If earlier it had been hard to save Ichigo and Karin it was now impossible.

"I can guess that is a bad thing", Renji said looking at Toushiro's face. He looked after the wagon coldly and nodded, lips tightly pressed together. Tatsuki sighed.

"Then we just need to save your friends when they aren't with him. Our best change is to break into the prison they're taking them to. It's either the south or west tower judging by the way they're going to", she said looking after the wagon too. They group hurried after it so that they wouldn't lose a sight of it, staying farther away in fear that Tousen would notice them following the wagon.

"They're going to west tower", Tatsuki said when the wagon turned left from an intersection.

"How do you know that already? The towers are still far away", Renji asked pointing at the two towers. Tatsuki smirked at him.

"I know this city pretty well. If they still want to go to south tower they'll have to use an extremely long way. That is the quickest way to west tower", she said pointing after the wagon. Renji looked impressed but Toushiro just nodded. It was pretty clear when the west tower was on left side and south on right side and the wagon turned left.

"You've been to this city often?" Toushiro asked. Tatsuki looked at the shorter man and shrugged.

"Well, at least in this part of the city. I have a friend who lives nearby. He's creepy but knows a lot of this place. I think we can sleep at his place, it's pretty close to the west tower", she answered. Renji snorted.

"You have a lot of those friends of yours. Are they all enemies of the Kingdom or how have you met?" he chuckled. Tatsuki glared at him before her expression turned into a grin.

"I've met them in the weekly 'we hate the Kingdom'-meetings", she said sarcastically causing Toushiro to chuckle. Renji rolled his eyes annoyed.

"Whatever", he muttered. The wagon had already disappeared from their sight but Tatsuki assured it was going to the west tower. Renji and Toushiro still wanted to be sure so they walked slowly towards the tower.

"How is this friend of yours so creepy?" Toushiro asked when the tower came into their view. Tatsuki laughed.

"You'll see soon. Just believe me when I say this, he's actually a good guy", she said, only managing to make Toushiro even more confused than he had been before.

Suddenly both Toushiro and Tatsuki jumped when Renji started roaring.

"WHO THREW A SHARD OF GLASS AT MY FACE!?" he yelled holding his bleeding cheek. There was a deep cut under his hand. People on the street were looking at him warily and some were backing away.

"Renji, try to calm down", Toushiro said putting his hand against his friends back. Renji was still glaring around trying to spot the person who would be holding a shard of glass.

Toushiro thought about it for a while and glanced up trying to spot someone there. He was barely able to see a head poking from a window. He couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man.

"Did you hear that? It was like someone yelled 'sorry'", Tatsuki said cocking her head to see if she could see the voice again. Renji just looked around confused.

"I heard nothing. Maybe you imagined it", he said. Tatsuki shrugged but Toushiro shook his head.

"It's possible she heard something, there was a person looking down from the window above. They were pretty high but I'm sure I saw someone", he said still looking at the window. The head had pulled away and from the place where he stood Toushiro wasn't even able to tell which window it had been.

"Really? The upper rooms are for the most important prisoners", Tatsuki said looking up too. Of course she saw no one.

"Are Karin and Ichigo 'important prisoners'?" Renji asked looking up too. Some of the by passers also looked up and wondered what the trio was looking at.

"I guess they are. After all, they know the hiding place of freedom fighters. I think they're the first ever been caught", Tatsuki said looking at Renji and Toushiro, rubbing her neck. Toushiro and Renji also stopped staring at the tower and looked at the black haired girl.

"I'm sure Karin is so proud. Her first real mission and she was caught", Toushiro sighed shaking his head. He remembered how eager Karin had been when she was allowed to finally go to a real mission.

"If you save them now and they have learned something about your enemy's head quarters it should turn out well, shouldn't it?" Tatsuki comforted the white-haired man. He sighed again but nodded.

"Maybe you're right. But now we need to plan a way to get them out. Where does that friend of yours live?" Toushiro asked. Tatsuki smirked for a second and waved her hand.

"He lives close by! Just follow me and don't get lost", she said and sprinted off towards a dark alley near the tower.

"Hey! Wait up!" Renji yelled running after her. Toushiro followed right after him. Tatsuki did few sharp turns to other alleys Renji and Toushiro would have missed, they were so well hidden behind garbage cans and other random stuff.

Finally they stopped in front of a surprisingly clean and strong looking door. Tatsuki knocked few times and the peeking hole opened.

"Who is there", a slimy sounding voice asked. Toushiro and Renji immediately had the instinct to turn around and walk away.

"It's me, Tatsuki. I have some friends with me", Tatsuki said and the peeking hole closed. Some noises of locks being opened rang in the empty alley before the door opened.

Both Renji's and Toushiro's eyes widened in surprise. The man in front of them was the most extra-ordinary they had ever seen.

His face was painted black and white and he was wearing some kind of golden attachments in his ears and chin, making him look a bit like an Egyptian Pharaoh. Also the blue hair styled in two horns pointing downwards backed up the picture of a Pharaoh. He was wearing a long white coat.

His eyes were maybe the scariest part of him. They were orange and pointed into different directions. As he looked at Renji and Toushiro curiously the right eye started to make a circle while the left one was fixated on the freedom fighter duo.

"Hello Mayuri. These are Renji and Toushiro. They're both freedom fighters and need help with trying to rescue their comrades", Tatsuki introduced them. The man hadn't moved his eyes away from the boys and was looking somehow a bit… hungry.

"Hello hello, Tatsuki", he waved his hand to the girl allowing Renji and Toushiro to see that he had also painted his hands white and that his nails were blue. The middle finger's fingernail on his right hand was extremely long.

"Could we stay here? I think you could help us with the rescue operation too, and you owe me one", Tatsuki said, clearly resisting the urge to wave her hand in front of his face to get his attention.

"Sure sure. Your friends seem to be really interesting, especially the short one." Toushiro gritted his teeth and fisted his hands wanting to punch the man.

"They're not here for your experiments", Tatsuki said angrily finally making the man look at her.

"Not even one or two small experiments? I can assure you, they would be better after them", he said still eyeing the men over Tatsuki's shoulder. Both men took few steps backwards. The man had just started to frighten them.

"NO! And now, could we come in? It can raise suspicions if we stand at your door for a long time", Tatsuki said. The man nodded and moved away from the door. Tatsuki followed him inside.

Toushiro and Renji were just standing in the alley, neither wanting to follow the dark haired girl and her friend inside. Tatsuki peeked around the door and chuckled when she saw the men just standing in the alley.

"C'mon! I'll protect you if you feel so scared", she laughed. Renji shook himself and followed Tatsuki with a brave look on his face. Toushiro rolled his eyes at his friend's behavior and followed him inside.

The house was pretty big and full of small bottles and such. It looked like a small laboratory rather than a house. Renji and Toushiro followed Tatsuki and Mayuri to the kitchen.

"Make us some tea Nemu!" Mayuri said to the young girl in the kitchen. Her long black hair was pulled into a braid. She was wearing a black skirt and t-shirt and a white apron.

"Yes, Mayuri-sama", she said bowing a bit and moving to the tea-pan. Mayuri eyes sparkled evilly causing Tatsuki to look at Nemu over her shoulder (she had already sat down to the desk).

"Nemu, bring normal tea. Not a drugged one", she said shooting a quick glare at Mayuri. He scowled at the girl but nodded at Nemu who had stopped to wait instructions from him.

"Don't worry guys, it'll be safe to drink the tea. Nemu can make amazing tea, you'll love it", she smiled sweetly at the boys. They shared a worried glance before sitting down to the table on the opposite side from Mayuri and Tatsuki.

Renji and Toushiro remained silent as Mayuri and Tatsuki spoke about people they both knew and the guys had never heard about. In few minutes Nemu brought the tea. She put small china cups with pink flower decoration in front of the boys and poured the steaming tea into them.

Tatsuki and Mayuri both got normal white cups and the same tea. Mayuri took a sip of his tea while Tatsuki added some milk and sugar to hers before drinking. The boys stared at the tea warily. It smelled completely okay and delicious.

"C'mon boys, don't be wussies", Tatsuki laughed at them. Renji looked at her lifted the cup to his lips taking a long sip. He coughed as the hot tea burned his tongue, but when he seemed otherwise okay Toushiro added some water into his tea and took a small sip.

The tea was amazing just like Tatsuki had said. It was just basic green tea, but Toushiro had never drunk so good tea in his life.

"Wow, you were right. This is fabulous!" he said staring at the cup surprised. Tatsuki shot an 'I-told-you-so look at the white-haired man taking another sip.

Renji had finally added enough cold water to his tea to make it drinkable and took another sip, cheeks burning red with embarrassment. Toushiro disguised his chuckle as a cough.

"So you boys want to break into a prison? I guess I could help you with that, I have some things you should find usable. And I do this only because I owe Tatsuki, don't expect me to always be doing good deeds", Mayuri said looking at the freedom fighter duo. Toushiro nodded.

"We understand that. What kind of things do you have? And would you maybe have any idea about how could we break to the prison? Does it have a lot of guards?" Toushiro asked, his organizised military side kicking in.

"Well, I have some potions, which for example can melt locks. I think you'll find that usable. And I'd suggest you use the sewer. It leads straight under every single one of the towers. And about the guards, how could I know. That's your problem", the man answered. Renji snorted annoyed but remained silent as Tatsuki and Toushiro shot warning glances at him.

"It would be best for Karin and Ichigo if we rescued them as soon as possible. Who knows what kind of interrogation methods Aizen uses", Toushiro said and Renji nodded in agreement.

"Tonight is too soon. We need to rest and plan, and during day it will be dangerous. If we're ready tomorrow evening we'll go then, but if we're not we'll wait", Tatsuki said. Mayuri sighed.

"Try to be done as soon as possible. I don't like to be a host for you people for longer than necessary", he said waving his hands around. Tatsuki smiled at him evilly.

"If you don't like hosting me avoid owing me", she said and the man rolled his eyes.

"I've noticed that before. It's annoying that no one else than you can find the ingredients for my potions. They can't be that hard to find!" he exclaimed.

"They are! The last two were on top of a mountain and in the middle of a swamp! It's practically life-threatening to do jobs for you", Tatsuki said angrily. Renji looked at her worriedly and glared at the blue-haired man from the corner of his eye.

"Whatever. I'll be in my laboratory if you need me. Don't bother me", Mayuri said standing up. Nemu bowed at the guests still sitting at the table and followed him.

"He's one creepy man", Renji said after he was sure the man could no longer hear him. Tatsuki chuckled nodding.

"He is, but he also is a valuable person to have on your side. Knows a lot and helps out when needed even though he complains about it", she said standing up. She took her cup and put it to sink. The boys followed her lead.

"I'm afraid Mayuri only has one guest room. We need to sleep in the same room", she said walking up the stairs. Toushiro glanced swiftly at his friend noticing the wide smirk before it disappeared behind a slightly bored face.

"I'm okay with that. Or are you afraid of sleeping in the same room with _guys_?" Renji asked, embracing the word guys. Tatsuki smirked at him.

"I was just worried you're afraid of girls. Big boys are usually the most scared ones", she said patting his cheek. She didn't need to stand on tiptoes because she was one step higher than him. She turned her back to Renji in time to miss his blush.

Toushiro looked away and started whistling. Renji glared over his shoulder and muttered: "You shut up."

* * *

Karin was sitting on the lower bed of the bunk bed, shaping the chicken bone when she suddenly heard footsteps from the hallway. She quickly jumped from the bed and stuffed the bone and shard of glass to the closet. She hurried back to bed and lay down in time before the door opened.

Instead of soldiers an orange haired girl entered. Karin looked at her surprised.

"And who are you? You don't look like a soldier", she said sitting up. The girl smiled a bit sadly and as the door was closed behind her.

"My name is Orihime. I'm a prisoner here like you. Seems like we're roommates", she said. Karin's eyebrows rose but she stood up from the bed nonetheless.

"I'm Karin. It's nice to meet someone else than a soldier", she said stretching her hand towards the woman.

"It's nice to meet you too. So, why are you here? Smuggling stuff to freedom fighters like me?" she asked taking the hand. Karin laughed a little and shook her head.

"Nope. I am a freedom fighter", she said. Orihime let go of her hand surprised.

"I thought they were only men. I've never heard a woman freedom fighter and I've even met some freedom fighters!" she said almost like expecting Karin to be lying. She smiled sheepishly.

"Well, I'm the only woman, so no surprise you had never heard about me. I got caught on my first real mission", she said. Orihime patted her head sympathetically.

"Hey, don't worry about me. I'm not going to stay here for long. I already have a plan of how to escape", she continued. Orihime was once again surprised.

"How? Were so high and the guards are guarding the hall way. There is no way you can beat them alone", she said but sounded excited. It was like she wanted Karin's plan to work. Why wouldn't she want?

"I'll tell you later. Sounds like another soldier is coming", Karin said hearing the footsteps from the hallway again. Orihime nodded and in few seconds the door opened. There was a man holding handcuffs there.

"You, little girl, Aizen wants to see you", he said gesturing Karin to follow him. She heaved a sigh and walked to the man.

"You know, I do have a name", she said annoyedly as she put her hands behind her back when the soldier put the hand cuffs on.

"And what might that be?" the soldier asked and Karin realized she hadn't told her name to any of them.

"It's none of your business", she said smirking. The soldier rolled his eyes and pushed Karin forward. She stumbled on her legs and almost fell.

"HEY! Watch out! I don't want to be rolling down those stairs", she complained to the soldier. He didn't answer, only grabbed a hold of Karin's hands. To the surprise of the black haired freedom fighter they didn't start walking down the stairs but headed up.

On the top of the stairs Ichigo was standing with another soldier. He looked at Karin over his shoulder and smirked without humor.

"I thought I heard your complaining. I have heard it too often", he said and Karin kicked his shin. He glared at the girl but the soldier holding his hands pulled him farther from her.

"Bring them in!" a voice commanded from the room in front of them. Two other soldiers opened the huge doors and Karin and Ichigo were pushed to the room. They both stumbled but managed to regain their balances.

The doors were closed behind them, all of the soldiers remaining in the other side. In front of Karin and Ichigo were two chairs. In front of the chairs were three thrones, the middle one highest of them all. The whole room was white, even the chairs.

"Sit down", same deep voice commanded. Now Karin and Ichigo managed to identify the voice. It belonged to the light brown haired man sitting on the highest throne. Even though neither of the two freedom fighters had never seen him before they knew who he was. Aizen, the only enemy of freedom fighters. And of course his army was enemy too, but he was the main enemy.

When neither Karin nor Ichigo took a step the man spoke again.

"I've been kind to you this far. Unless you want me to change my methods, you really should obey." Aizen was smiling the whole time he was speaking, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. They were cold and calculating.

Karin and Ichigo moved slowly to sit on the chairs. It was somewhat uncomfortable when their hands were tied behind their backs.

"So you are freedom fighters. I'm somewhat surprised. My men seem to be so scared of your little group and in the end you're just a bunch of kids Zaraki has raised", he said looking at the duo amused. Both showed a little surprise on their faces before they managed to regain their poker faces.

"Seems like you didn't know I knew the name of your leader. He has been fighting against me and everyone else I can think of long before the birth of either of you", he explained. He seemed to be enjoying the situation.

Karin looked carefully at the two other men on the thrones on Aizen's sides. One was Tousen whom Karin had met before and the other one was a new face.

He had white-hair a bit similar to Toushiro's and a white outfit like everyone in Aizen's army. He had a creepy smile and his eyes were closed, making him look a bit like a fox.

"I must say I'm surprised about another thing too", Aizen spoke again and Karin returned her eyes to him. He was staring right at her.

"I never would have thought Zaraki would adopt a girl. I thought he wanted only those who are able to fight", he said eyeing Karin curiously. Karin glared at him in return.

"Dad does what he wants. And why couldn't a girl fight?" Ichigo asked causing Aizen to look at him.

"I'm not saying that, though I'm surprised if she is able to beat even a single soldier on her own. And you call Zaraki Dad? That's just a joke", he laughed. Karin growled wanting only to jump to her feet and run to Aizen and hit him in the nose with all the strength she had.

"You want to fight, girl? Well, I guess I'd like to see if there is a reason you're in freedom fighters. Gin, would you call a guard here. And ask another one to bring us some tea", he said turning to the white haired man. He nodded and stood up.

As the man walked past Karin he kept his eye son her the whole time. Even though some instinct in Karin told her to look away she kept her eyes on the man's face.

He opened the door slightly and said something in too quiet voice for Karin to hear. The man on the door nodded and called something over his shoulder. Then her followed Gin to the room.

"Remove the girl's hand cuffs and fight her. I want to see if she's worth being a freedom fighter hostage. If she loses we don't need her", Aizen said as Gin sat back to his seat. The soldier nodded and pulled Karin up from the chair. She bit her lip as she felt the burning in her side reminding that she had most likely some broken ribs.

"Do I throw my sword away or use it too?" the man asked unsheathing his sword after removing the hand cuffs. Karin rubbed her wrists. There were bright red marks in both of them.

"Freedom fighters should be able to fight unarmed against an armed man", Aizen only said. The soldier nodded and took a stance, ready to attack any moment.

Karin glanced at Ichigo shortly and he winked at her. He was the only one in the room who knew how strong Karin really was. Though she was able to see the worry in his eyes. She rolled her eyes assuring to him and looked at her enemy.

Taking a battle stance she gestured the man to attack. Usually a trained soldier wouldn't have attacked, but the soldier in question thought it was going to be an easy fight.

He swung his sword towards Karin's neck and she bent her knees, causing the sword fly over her head. She winced with the pain that radiated form her ribs.

With a quick move she hit the man in the jaw and as he took a step back hit his wrist with her other hand. A loud clang rang around the room as the sword dropped to floor. Karin smirked evilly, noticing that the fight was practically over already.

The soldier took a quick step back surprised. Karin took a step forward, lifting her left leg of the ground. With the speed of her step she jumped forward with her right leg. She crossed her hands behind the neck of the soldier and brought her right knee to his stomach with all the strength she had.

The man fell to the ground holding his stomach. Karin grinned at Ichigo over her shoulder.

"C'mon! You should have beaten him faster than that! I could have beaten him in one move", the orange head teased. Karin laughed, forgetting completely where she was.

"Sure you could, Strawberry", she said. As a lonely clapping sound echoed around the room Karin remember Aizen and his two commanders.

"I must admit you're better than I would have guessed. But I think I know why. I'd recognize that smirk anywhere, did you know that daughter of Zaraki", he said. Karin's eyes widened as she realized Aizen had guessed her identity. Ichigo stoop up from the chair, ready to fight.

"Sit down. You'll get your change to show your skills. I'm not going to hurt the daughter of Zaraki, not yet. She is much more valuable alive than dead", he said looking at Karin with evil look in his eyes. Karin snorted to cover her uncertainty.

"You don't apparently know my father! It's not like having his daughter would help you at all. Weak lose and die, that's the way he works", she said glaring at Aizen. He shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe. But even he should have his father instinct somewhere deep inside him", Aizen said. "Get them back to their rooms, we need to think again about their interrogating", he continued calling the men outside the door. Three soldiers entered, two walking to Karin and Ichigo and one carrying a tray with tea and three cups on it.

The soldier on the ground was ignored completely as a new soldier put the hand cuffs back to Karin and pushed her out of the room. Ichigo was pushed after her.

"This is annoying. I wish they would let me fight, I get bored like this", he sighed to Karin as they walked down the stairs. Karin snorted.

"I wish they would let me not fight. I'm getting tired of being the only one fighting", she said. Neither of them mentioned about what Aizen had discovered but when they exchanged a final glance they had the same worry in their eyes.

"Hello Karin. You seem to be okay. They didn't interrogate you yet, did they?" Orihime asked worriedly when the soldier closed the door behind Karin. She shook her head.

"No, they just made me fight against one guy to prove I am worthy of being a freedom fighter and somehow Aizen realized I'm the daughter of our leader", she said and grimaced as she sat down. Moving around had only made her ribs even more tender.

"Are you really the daughter of Kenpachi? Wow, you don't look that much like him. Maybe it's only good", Orihime chuckled. Karin had to smile a bit.

"You've seen Dad?" Karin asked a bit curious. She knew her father didn't mind being seen by enemy or random people so most of the people only knew him of the freedom fighters.

"Yeah, I met him once when I was smuggling some medical stuff to your village. He is one huge man", she said. Karin chuckled.

"Are you okay by the way? I noticed how you grimaced when you sat down", she continued worriedly sitting down next to Karin.

"I think I've broken a rib or two. It hurts a bit to move my upper body", she answered poking the area around the ribs she thought were broken.

"Let me see! I know some healing spells", Orihime said lifting Karin's shirt. Both of them grimaced as they saw Karin's side. It was like one huge bruise with a bump in the middle where the broken rib was.

"Definitely at least one broken. Maybe the one above it too. I can't heal them completely, but I can shorten the time they'll need to heal", Orihime said inspecting the ribs. She poked the bruise and Karin had to bit her tongue not to yell.

"I'll start healing you right away. If you have a plan to escape I think you should be in the best shape possible", she said moving her hands gently across Karin's ribs and mumbling something so that an orange sphere appeared around her hands.

Karin felt the ribs feel cold and hot at the same time, but then the pain started to ease.

* * *

**Finally done. I'm sorry it took so long, I barely had time to write it this weekend. My friend was staying over and we stayed up pretty late.**

**I didn't think I'd get this done today. I had so much homework to do: I had to write an essay in Swedish, do homework for two different math courses, do my physic homework, correct two essays I had written in Finnish and plan the next one. That was all the homework for ****one day!****My teachers seriously try to kill me with work.**

**Please review! I really appreciate reviews! **

**Hugs to you people and try to survive your school and homework too! Summer vacation is soon here!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach not any of its characters. They all belong to Tite Kubo.**

* * *

Toushiro and Renji were once again sharing a room. They were slowly waking up in the upstairs of the house of the mysterious science man. Last night they had stayed up late with Tatsuki trying to think of a way to rescue their friends from the huge tower. The girl was now sleeping on the other side of the room in the only bed. Being gentlemen Toushiro and Renji had decided to sleep on the floor.

They had managed to come up with a simple yet usable plan. At night the security was tighter than at day so they needed to get inside the tower during day. That was the hardest part in their plan. Once inside they could just knock out everyone crossing their way and hide them in various closets.

To get inside the tower they would need the uniforms they stole from the soldiers in Junrin'an and a prisoner. If they didn't have a prisoner they would need to show identity passes which they didn't obviously have.

"Who do you think the prisoner will be? Tatsuki did say she knows someone who is wanted because of opposing the kingdom", Toushiro said sitting on the desk. Renji slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Maybe it's either one of those two downstairs. I wouldn't be surprised", he said boredly and glanced at the sleeping girl from the corner of his eye. Toushiro noticed it and rolled his eyes.

"You have one huge crush on that girl", he said shaking his head with a tiny smile on his lips. Renji shrugged.

"Who wouldn't? She's great: strong, funny and certainly not a coward", he said now staring at Tatsuki without trying to hide it. Toushiro chuckled and stretched his arms above his head.

"And you're one to talk! Look at you, trying to save Karin to prove your undying love for her", Renji shot back, causing Toushiro to blush and loose his balance. With a loud crash he fell from the desk.

"What was that!? Who is attacking!?" Tatsuki yelled jumping up from the bed. Her foot caught the sheet and she fell forward, straight on top of Renji. He yelped in surprise.

"Relax you two, haven't you ever heard someone falling from a desk before?" Toushiro asked standing up and dusting his pants. It seemed like neither Renji nor Tatsuki heard him, they were too busy staring into each other's eyes. Toushiro cleared his throat to remind he was still there.

Tatsuki's eyes widened and she pushed herself off of Renji. Said man was having hard time in keeping his face from turning to match his hair in color.

"You fell from the desk? Why?" Tatsuki asked looking at the short man surprised, trying to change the subject.

"I just felt like falling off a desk. Why do you ask?" Toushiro asked rising his eyebrows. Tatsuki chuckled.

"Sorry, didn't realize you like falling", she said. Renji had now regained control of his face and brain and was standing up.

"Hey Tatsuki, who is our mystery prisoner? Is it the man from downstairs?" Renji asked reaching for a black ribbon to tie his hair to the usual high ponytail. Tatsuki turned to look at him and Toushiro didn't miss how her eyes traveled across the bare tattooed chest of the red-head before reaching his eyes. He hid his smirk behind his hand like he was covering a yawn.

"Mayuri? Hah, he would never do something like that. No, our prisoner is a friend of mine and don't worry, I trust her completely. She might be small, but she definitely packs a punch", Tatsuki told.

"So another girl? What is this, a secret girl army?" Renji asked chuckling, only to gain a punch into stomach from the black haired girl.

"Don't underestimate us girls. And by the way, how much do you work out? My knuckles hurt from punching your abs!" she said shaking her hand. Renji smirked widely.

"Ya like it?" he asked seductively. Toushiro resisted the urge to facepalm. Renji was quite charming when he didn't try to be. ONLY when he wasn't trying to be.

"You wish big boy. Now change your clothes, were going to have more girls in this house", Tatsuki said throwing the uniforms at the guys. They both caught them and when they lifted their eyes from the clothes the small girl was already gone.

"She's one heck of a girl, don't you think Toushiro", Renji said pulling the shirt on. The white-haired man rolled his eyes.

"Tell that to her, not to me. You're slowly starting to creep me out", he said taking off the long pants he had slept in and pulling on the pants of the uniform.

"Maybe I should, shouldn't I?" Renji said slowly sinking into deep thoughts. Toushiro shook his head smiling a small smile, which disappeared as he thought about another black haired girl in the town. They changed the rest of their clothes in silence.

When they had the white uniforms on they walked downstairs. Tatsuki had already changed her uniform on and was now pouring coffee into four cups.

"What took you so long? Had to admire you muscles as you changed?" Tatsuki joked causing Toushiro to chuckle and Renji look at her with a wide smirk.

"You're just jealous you weren't there to admire our muscles", he said and Tatsuki laughed.

"You'll never know", she said shaking her head. "C'mon, I have some sandwiches and coffee. No worries, Nemu made them, not me", she continued gesturing to the table. The guys sat down , Renji next to Tatsuki and Toushiro across him.

"Is this friend of yours coming soon or who did you get the fourth cup for", Renji asked pointing at the empty space next to Toushiro.

"Oh, she's already here, she's just washing of her disguise", Tatsuki said pointing behind her towards the shower from where a sound of running water was coming.

"Disguise?" Toushiro asked confused. Tatsuki nodded and before she was able to explain what she meant the bathroom door opened and a small black haired girl entered drying her hair with a pink towel.

"Yes, I had to paint my face so that I wouldn't get recognized while coming here after Tatsuki send the message. There are posters of me all around the city", she said throwing the towel back to the bathroom and kicking the door closed.

Toushiro now realized that her face was indeed familiar. Big purple eyes and black shoulder length hair with a small bang falling gently over her nose. She was really short, even shorter than Toushiro, but her form was muscular and agile. She looked like she was used to running around the city to get away from pursuers.

"So you're the freedom fighters who need help in rescuing some comrades. My name is Rukia", the girl said sitting down next to Toushiro. He and Renji had been looking at the girl surprisedly and now started giggling.

"What's so funny?" Rukia asked confused. She looked at Tatsuki who was only able to shrug. She had no idea what the boys were laughing at either.

"You have same name as our pet rabbit back in the village. And to be honest, you even look kinda like her", Renji said giggling and suddenly got a fist into his chin. He fell backwards with the chair causing even louder crash than Toushiro had just few minutes before.

"I like rabbits. Never insult them", Rukia growled, standing on the table. Toushiro shut up really quickly not to draw any attention to him.

"By the way, does the man who owns this rabbit happen to be someone named Ichigo?" Rukia asked suddenly causing Renji to get up faster than he had ever before.

"It's practically the whole village's rabbit, but the one who brought it to our village was indeed a man named Ichigo. He even happens to be the one were going to save. How do you know him?" Toushiro asked looking at the girl on the table surprised. She smirked and got off the table.

"I was the one who gave him the rabbit. I wanted him to have something to remind him of the fact we met. He was on his first mission and got injured so I had to save him. I helped him to heal and we became close friends. The Rukia rabbit is actually our messenger. She brings me Ichigo's messages and then takes back my messages to him", Rukia told her smile softening. All the rest of the people around the table were staring at her eyes wide.

"How come everyone we meet has some kind of connection to freedom fighters?" Renji voiced the question in Toushiro's thoughts.

"Well, it's a good thing, because those who aren't connected to freedom fighters would have probably turned you in", Tatsuki noted.

"You said Ichigo got caught? How come I'm not surprised?" Rukia asked with a small sigh. She shook her head and looked at the other people with determination in her eyes.

"We need to start this rescue-operation now. Who knows what trouble that man can cause while he is imprisoned?" Rukia asked gaining three solemn nods.

"So what's the plan? Tatsuki only told me I'm your prisoner. Seems like you've already managed to get uniforms. It's a good thing you have short hair Tatsuki, the army of the kingdom doesn't have women", Rukia said nodding to Tatsuki. Toushiro noticed only now how Tatsuki had the jacket open and a loose undershirt on to hide her boobs.

"The plan is, we take you to the western tower and tell we caught you. If they want to take you inside themselves we'll show the paper out commander has given us that says we need to take you ourselves. Mayuri made the paper last night, there is no way to tell it's fake. Once inside we'll just start searching for the people we need to rescue. A good idea is to start from the upper rooms, they're most likely somewhere in there", Tatsuki explained. Rukia nodded.

"Sounds like a good plan. Simple and actually something that can work. I remember some of your previous plans. Last time I think we had to jump from the roof of a three story building to get away", Rukia said glaring at Tatsuki with a small smile. She shrugged.

"How was I supposed to know some commanders don't drink tea? C'mon, everyone drinks tea!" Tatsuki said and both of the women started laughing. Toushiro and Renji exchanged a confused glance.

"So with a simple plan for once, let's get going! Your friends aren't going to rescue themselves!" Tatsuki said standing up so quickly she knocked her chair over. Renji followed lead, except his chair was already on the floor.

"Hey Shorty", Rukia whispered to Toushiro. He glared at her coldly.

"You're calling me short? You're even shorter. My name is Toushiro. Please use it", he said shortly. Rukia laughed at patted Toushiro's head as they followed Renji and Tatsuki out of the door.

"Sure thing Toushiro. So, I was going to ask if that red-headed friend of yours has a crush on Tatsuki. He's following her like a small puppy. Or is he usually like that?" Rukia whispered so quietly that neither Renji nor Tatsuki heard her.

"Yup, he has. I've never seen Renji act that way", Toushiro said shaking his head as he watched his childhood friend tease the short black-haired girl. Both were smirking widely.

"Seems like Tatsuki is interested in him too. Or at least she enjoys his company very much. She hasn't been smiling and laughing like this after Orihime was captured", Rukia said staring at the duo too.

"Pardon me for being nosy, but what is your relationship with Ichigo? I mean, I'm really surprised I haven't heard anything about you, I live in the same house as Ichigo as does Renji", Toushiro said after a moment of silence.

"Were close friends. I asked him not to mention me to anyone so it would be easier for us to send messages. Otherwise someone might start to think I'm not trustable and he couldn't send any messages anymore", Rukia said smiling.

"And now you must pardon me, but could you tell me about this Karin were going to save", Rukia asked and Toushiro looked at her surprised.

"Tatsuki mentioned her name earlier, but for some reason she didn't mention Ichigo. I guess she mentioned that Karin because she was surprised to hear there is a female freedom fighter. As am I by the way", she explained. Toushiro nodded and was silent for a moment, trying to think how to describe Karin.

"Well Karin is a hot-head just like Dad. She doesn't seem to be girly at all, but she has her female side too. I don't think many people have seen that side of her, but she's a pretty close friend to me. She's strong and fast, a really good fighter and has is a quick thinker. I couldn't imagine our village without her", he told with a small smile on his lips. Rukia looked at him curiously and when he finished his explaining and was staring into the air deep in his thoughts smiled secretly.

"Oi Rukia! We need to tie your hands now or this'll look suspicious!" Tatsuki called as they approached the streets. Rukia nodded and hurried to her friend. Toushiro walked slowly behind her.

"Oi Shiro, wake up dreamer. You need to be sharp when we go to the tower", Renji stated waving his hand in front of Toushiro's eyes. He blinked few times and looked at Renji like he had just woken up. The red-head shook his head and sighed.

"Love-sick fool", he told. Toushiro glared at him.

"I could say the same thing about you."

* * *

At the tower Karin was slowly waking up. She sat up carefully and moved her hand to poke her ribs. She felt only some throbbing pain, but not nearly as bad as it had been earlier. With a quick move she jumped down from the top bed she had been sleeping in.

They had decided with Orihime that she would sleep on the top bed because Orihime feared she would fall. Considering the clumsiness of the girl it was a good idea.

Looking behind her Karin noticed Orihime was still sleeping. She smiled at her and walked to the closet, digging out the shards of glass and the chicken bone. She had been removing unnecessary bone and now the bone was sharp and a little bit smaller than a pencil. It had been quite a big job, but she had been doing it almost whole night.

Sitting on the desk and looking down at the busy town she continued shaping the bone. After some minutes Orihime started shifting in her bed and finally she rolled around and fell out of the bed.

"Are you okay?" Karin asked surprised and rushed to Orihime's side to help her up. She laughed and dusted her shirt.

"No worries, that happens every morning. I'm not used to sleeping in so narrow bed", she said rubbing the back of her head. Karin sighed and shook her head.

"It's a really good thing you didn't sleep in the top bed", she said and Orihime giggled. Suddenly the door was opened and a soldier came in carrying a tray of food.

"Here is breakfast for you. Aizen if expecting to meet with the freedom fighter in two hours", he said placing the tray on a small desk near the door. Without waiting for an answer he left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Aizen is going to be disappointed. I don't plan on being here after two hours", Karin mumbled and walked to the tray to check what was on it. There were two cups of steaming hot tea and some scrambled eggs.

"This looks edible. You hungry Orihime?" Karin asked over her shoulder. Orihime smiled brightly.

"Always. A growing girl needs to eat, doesn't she?" she said as Karin lifted the tray and carried it to the desk next to the window.

"How old are you? You look older than me and I'm already 19 and certainly not growing anymore", Karin said confused. Orihime shrugged.

"I'm 21. But hey, at least I won't start to shrink if I eat well!" she exclaimed happily. Karin stared at her before bursting into laughter.

"You're a weird one Orihime", she giggled and handed the plate to the orange-haired girl.

"My friend Tatsuki used to say the same thing. You remind me of her. She is the same kind of a fighter from her soul", Orihime said smiling a little sadly. Last night Orihime had told how and why she was captured and spent a long time telling about Tatsuki. Karin patted her head.

"Don't worry, I'll get us out of here and then we can your friend. I owe it to you because you healed my ribs", she said taking a careful sip from the cup.

"So your plan is working? When are you going to get out of here?" Orihime asked. Karin had been talking a lot of getting out of the cell they were in.

"I should be ready in half an hour. If there are no guards or only one guard in the hallway at that time I can start the plan right away", Karin answered. The bone was already almost ready.

* * *

Below Toushiro, Renji, Tatsuki and Rukia arrived at the tower. They had already managed to get a group of soldiers to escort them when they recognized Rukia. She was doing a great job in pretending to be a prisoner, glaring at everyone and spitting to the faces of the soldiers who came to close.

"What do we have here?" asked the soldier at the entrance of the tower. He looked at Rukia curiously. "You have managed to catch the little bitch who has avoided us all this time. Good job, I'm sure your commander is proud of you. Go on, you deserve the honor to escort her to her cell. She should be put to one of the highest cells", the man said. Renji, being the scariest looking of the three people dressed as soldiers, nodded and gestured Tatsuki and Toushiro to move.

"Thank you. I'm just glad there is one less person to oppose Aizen", he said and followed Tatsuki and Toushiro inside.

"That was easier than I would have guessed. We didn't even need the fake papers. How come no one has ever escaped before", Tatsuki said while untying Rukia's wrists. She rubbed them gently.

"You didn't need to tie my hands so tightly", she complained to Tatsuki.

"Yes I had to. What if someone had tested the knots and realized how loosely you were tied?" she asked raising her eyebrows. Rukia sighed.

"Fine, but remind me again, _why_ did I agree to do this?" she muttered and followed after Renji who was looking around the corner for any soldiers.

"Because you like me too much to not agree to do something I suggest", Tatsuki told smirking and peeked around an open door.

"He guys, look what we have here!" Toushiro said from across the hallway. He had peeked in from another open door and found something really familiar.

"These are Ichigo's swords and here is Karin's sword and her guns", Toushiro said holding the weapons. Everyone turned to look at him.

"You found their weapon storage! Well done! The question is, how are we going to take these to Ichigo and Karin?" Renji said taking his friend's swords from Toushiro.

"It's simple. The same way we carry our own weapons", Rukia said matter-of-factly. Tatsuki chuckled as Renji blushed in realization how stupid he had sounded.

"But won't they get in the way?" he continued, trying to make some sense. Toushiro shrugged tying Karin's sword to his back.

"Not more than our own weapons will get. Here Tatsuki, you get these", he said throwing Karin's guns to Tatsuki.

"Wow, these are some quality guns. These could actually make some damage!" she said examining the weapons. With a swift movement she tied the belt the guns were in to her waist and tightened it.

"Do I have to carry both of Ichigo's swords? C'mon guys, these are heavy!" Renji complained dropping the larger of the two weapons.

"Don't be a crybaby. I can take this, you be a man and carry the bigger", Rukia said with an amused snort as she took the long sword Renji was still holding. He looked after the petite girl with confused expression. Quickly he shook his head, picked up the kitchen-knife like sword and hurried after the rest of the rescuers.

"So now we'll just need to get to the top of this tower without anyone noticing us", Tatsuki said and walked straight into a soldier who came around the corner.

"What did you just say?" Renji teased unsheathing his sword with a quick move. Before the soldier had time to yell he swung the sword downwards and the soldier fell to the ground without a sound.

"Or we can just walk straight up and beat anyone standing in our way", she said shrugging. Renji flashed a wide smirk showing almost all of his teeth.

"I like that plan better than the first one", he laughed. Rukia looked at him a bit suspicious and Toushiro rolled his eyes.

"Renji has never been one for thinking. He likes to just do things", he explained to the short girl in a quiet voice.

"I heard that! I'm not deaf!" Renji called over his shoulder. Toushiro shrugged nonchalantly.

"But you are like that. I mean, no one could say you are the brain of any operation and if someone did I would never take part in that operation", he deadpanned.

"Well, you're right. I wouldn't take part in that operation either", Renji said shrugging. Tatsuki laughed and slapped his arm.

"You're one odd guy, did you know that Renji?" she asked and Renji looked at her confusedly.

"C'mon you two, no time for flirting", Rukia said as five soldiers came running around the corner. It seemed like they had heard the first soldier even though he hadn't had a chance to yell.

"This is all? Do they honestly think five guys can stop _us_?" Renji complained getting ready to fight. Beside him Toushiro also drew his sword from his back.

* * *

"Karin, I wouldn't want to bother you, but how exactly do you plan to escape this cell? No one has done it before?" Orihime asked when she finally got frustrated in just trying to figure out what the younger girl was doing by watching her. Karin lifted her eyes and smirked at the orange-haired girl.

"I have something those guys didn't", she said smirking even wider. Orihime cocked her head in question.

"What exactly?"

"A chicken bone", Karin answered moving her eyes back to the bone and by doing so missed Orihime's confused look.

"How is a chicken bone going to help us?" she asked getting interested. Smiling at the younger girl she sat down on the bed next to her.

"I have some experience in using chicken bones", Karin stated shortly. A small smile was still playing on her lips, even though her eyebrows were pressed together as she concentrated on the bone. This was the hardest part and if she screwed up now they would have no change to get away.

Orihime sat quietly next to her and followed how her hands used the shard of glass to sharpen the bone with skill that could only come from experience. How Karin had experience in shaping chicken bones Orihime couldn't have even guessed.

"YES! It's done! Now we can get away!" Karin said jumping to stand up and waving the bone, or what was left of it, around in her hand. Orihime smiled at the girl's enthusiasm but was getting quite excited herself.

"I heard the guard's footsteps about two minutes ago, which would mean it takes him another ten minutes to walk by here again", Orihime told. She had been in the cell much longer than Karin and had grown accustomed to the guards' rhythm.

"Wow, thanks! That gives us enough time to get away. Saving Ichigo will be a bit harder but I think we should be able to do that on time too", Karin said walking to the closet with quick steps. She took one of the white jackets (not army version but close) throwing another to Orihime.

"This way we won't raise so much suspicions, though it would be better if we avoided the soldiers all together until I have my sword and guns back", she told putting her arms through the sleeves. They were a bit too long and she had to roll them up a bit so that they stayed out of her way.

"Now, I really hope this lock is as simple as it looks", she mumbled and knelt down to peek to the lock. It seemed familiarly simple and carefully she pushed the chicken bone inside.

With her left eye constantly pressed against the keyhole she worked slowly to open the door. Finally after five minutes the lock made a quiet click sound and Karin pressed the handle down. The door opened.

"You did it! That's amazing Karin!" Orihime exclaimed clapping her hands. Karin moved her finger to her lips to shush the older girl. She slapped her hands over her mouth. The hardest part was over and now the most dangerous part began.

Karin peeked around the door to make sure no one was in the hallway. The road was clear and she opened the door completely and gestured Orihime to follow. The girl nodded, still holding her hands over her mouth.

Sneaking quickly across the hallway Karin knelt down beside Ichigo's cell's door and pushed the chicken bone in. Trying to work as quickly as she was able she moved the chicken bone around while Orihime was watching around, ready to warn if the guard was coming.

"Shit", Karin whispered loudly when the fragile bone broke. _Now how I'm going to save Ichigo? C'mon, think Karin ,think!_

"Karin! I hear footsteps!" Orihime said worriedly. Karin cocked her head and noticed the footsteps too. Someone was climbing up the stairs.

"Quick, let's hide to our room. But don't close the door", Karin said and the two rushed over the hallway back to their cell. Karin pulled the door as close as she dared, but not so that it would lock again.

The guard walked slowly to the hallway, whistling out of tune. Karin glared at him from the keyhole and Orihime leaned over her to look from the crack of the door. The guard yawned and covered his mouth with his hand.

"I have a plan", Orihime whispered to Karin. The black-haired girl looked up surprised. Orihime smiled and looked out of the crack again. As soon as the guard was past their door she slid it open and sneaked behind him.

"Hiyaa!" she suddenly yelled swiping the man's feet from under him. With a yelp he fell to the ground, hitting the back of his head to the floor with a painful thud. Karin grimaced understandingly and stood up from her position.

"That was a good idea. I didn't realize you knew martial arts, you seemed to be more of a healer", she said looking at the man. He seemed to be unconscious. Orihime was digging his pockets and suddenly she exclaimed happily.

"Found it! Look, now we won't need that bone anymore", she said shaking the guards keys. There were about ten keys in a ring.

"How come he has so little keys? What if they won't fit the lock?" Karin asked worriedly. Orihime shook her head.

"Don't worry. Every guard had keys for the cells in two floors. That guy has the keys to all of the cells on this floor", she said spinning the ring around her finger.

"Aaand the right one is—this!" she said taking a random key. With quick steps she walked to the door and put the key in. She turned it in the lock and the door clicked open. Karin raised her eyebrows surprised and chuckled.

"You're a natural talent", she said and walked next to the busty girl and pulled the door open.

A very confused, very naked Ichigo glanced over his shoulder. His back was towards the door and a towel was hanging over his shoulder, drops of water falling from his flat hair.

Karin and Orihime automatically screamed and Karin slammed the door shut, cheeks flushed. From the corner of her eye she noticed Orihime had the exactly same expression. She smirked at her and soon the girls were rolling on the floor laughing.

"Hey Karin, was that you?" Ichigo asked knocking the door.

"Yeah, it's me", Karin answered slightly out of breathe from laughing so much.

"How did you get out of your cell? No, explain that later, just let me out!" he continued.

"Are you dressed?" Karin asked and the color returned to Orihime's cheeks. Ichigo sighed from the other side.

"Yes, I'm dressed. Man, you would think there was a dead body in here from how you screamed", he muttered. Karin decided to ignore his comments for once and put the key back to the keyhole opening the door and letting Ichigo out.

He was now wearing the pants of his freedom fighter uniform and a white t-shirt. His hair was even messier than usually, and had a bit darker color because it was wet.

"Now how did you get out? I thought these cells were like the best in the world", Ichigo said looking at the black haired girl curiously. Karin shrugged nonchalantly and smirked at him.

"Actually I need to thank you and Renji for that", she chuckled. Ichigo looked at her confused. It seemed like he hadn't noticed Orihime yet.

"You remember when you and Renji locked me to the cellar of the kitchen a couple of years ago. You actually did it a few times", Karin said. Ichigo nodded and smirked.

"Good times. It was fun to hear your threats when we were safely on the other side of the door", he laughed. Karin glared at him.

"It wasn't so fun when I got out and executed my threats, now was it?" she asked and Ichigo winced at the memory.

"So what about that? I don't even know how you got out every time. There are no windows and we searched the room for any secret passageway", Ichigo said.

"Yeah, I used a knife to shape a chicken bone so that I was able to pick the lock. When Grimmjow earlier threw the bone at us I kept it and used it to get out", she explained. Ichigo's eyes widened and he looked first surprised and then suspicious until finally his expression changed into approving.

"You're a smart girl Karin", Ichigo said shaking his head. "But you didn't open my cell's door with a chicken bone, that's for sure. It was way too quick."

"Well, Orihime stole the guards keys and the made the job a lot easier", Karin shrugged. Ichigo looked from the black-haired girl to the orange-haired who had stood a little farther from the two. She waved at him brightly.

"Hi! I'm Orihime, I shared the cell with Karin", she greeted. Ichigo looked at her curiously and glanced at Karin.

"We can trust her, she helps freedom fighters. That's why she is here", Karin answered to the unasked question. Ichigo nodded and his pose relaxed clearly.

"My name is Ichigo. Nice to meet you", Ichigo said stepping over the guard lying on the ground to shook the girls hand.

The guard mumbled something unintelligent and it seemed like he was going to wake up. Almost like accidentally Ichigo kicked his head with his feet and the mumbling stopped.

"Looks like you had fun again", he said to Karin nodding towards the guard on the floor. Karin shook her head smiling.

"That was Orihime. She might not look like it but she's a pretty strong fighter", she said and Ichigo looked at the girl clearly surprised.

"That's amazing. He's so much bigger than you", he praised and Orihime scratched the back of her head embarrassed.

"It was just something my friend Tatsuki taught me. She said I should be able to protect myself", she told.

"Why wouldn't it have been amazing if it had been me who knocked him out? He's even bigger compared to me than to Orihime?" Karin asked angrily. Ichigo shrugged.

"I already know you fight like Dad so that would have been no surprise. Sometimes I wonder if you're a girl at all", Ichigo said and earned a hard kick to his ribs.

"Watch your tongue", Karin growled. Ichigo rolled his eyes holding his side with his other hand.

"Girls shouldn't be so violent", Ichigo mumbled quietly and got a fist into his nose. He lifted the hand that already wasn't at his side to his nose to stop the bleeding.

"Don't you tell me how girls should be. I am what I am", Karin said not even looking over her shoulder to check if Ichigo was okay. Why would she have, she was the one who had injured him.

"You two, maybe you should fight later. I really want to get out of this tower, I've been here already for so long", Orihime said trying to calm the arguing freedom fighters. Both looked at her and Karin shrugged.

"I guess you're right. Let's try to avoid from running into anyone", she said and Ichigo nodded in agreement. Before they left anywhere they closed both of the open doors, dragging the unconscious guard to Ichigo's cell. They were trying to get more time to get away.

The trio moved towards the stairs and downwards as quickly as they dared without making too much noise. Few times they were almost caught when groups of two or three soldiers were running up and down the stairs.

"Seems like they've noticed our escape. We should be even more careful from now on", Ichigo said as they had barely time to jump into a small closet.

"I'm surprised that they were this quick. I would have though they wouldn't notice were missing before I was supposed to be taken to Aizen", Karin said glancing around from the crack between the two doors of the closet.

She was already pushing the door open when Ichigo noticed shadows from the corner of his eye. Quickly he stopped her hand and gestured towards the shadows outside. Karin pressed her eye to the crack and tried to see what was happening.

Suddenly Orihime drew in a short breathe and was holding her hand in front of her mouth. It took Ichigo about a second to realize she was going to sneeze.

"No!" he whispered and pressed his hand over her mouth to at least suppress the sound. Orihime sneezed, but it was quiet enough that even Karin was barely able hear it in the silent closet. The problem was she moved her head forward so quickly that neither Karin nor Ichigo had time to prepare.

Orihime's forehead hit the back of Karin's head and she lost her balance causing her to fall. The door flew open and she was lying on the floor while Ichigo and Orihime were trying to press closer to the wall, Ichigo's hand still covering Orihime's mouth.

The conversation the people in the hallway were having was cut and Karin was practically able to feel the eyes in her back.

"I can explain", she said with a nervous smile as she turned her head to look at the people. To her surprise the first thing she noticed was a familiar pair of teal eyes and white hair.

"TOUSHIRO!" she exclaimed jumping to her feet. The man was staring at her with confuse and relief in his eyes. Without thinking Karin rushed to hug the short man.

"You came to rescue us! That's so nice", she said crushing Toushiro into a tight bear hug. He drew in a surprised breathe.

Over the shoulder of her friend Karin was able to spot another familiar face.

"Renji!" she exclaimed letting go of Toushiro, still keeping her his shoulders, like she was pushing him away to get a better look of the man. The tattooed man smirked and waved his hand.

"Hi Karin! I can tell you I didn't expect you to be bursting out of random closets", she chuckled at ruffled Karin's hair. She tried to swat the hand away but wasn't able to contain her wide smile.

"Did you say Renji?" Ichigo asked peeking from the closet. His best friend noticed him and the said read-head's face brightened.

"Ichigo, c'mon out of the closet you fool!" he exclaimed taking two long steps past Karin and Toushiro. Karin's other hand was still on Toushiro's shoulder and there was no way Toushiro would complain about it.

Meanwhile Ichigo had finally let go of Orihime and stood up. Renji grabbed his friend head to the crook of his arm and rubbed his head with his fist.

"What an idiot you are to get caught! Do you have any idea how hard it is to save idiots?" Renji teased. Ichigo struggled against his hold and they fell to the ground.

"HEY! I'm no idiot!" Karin yelled angrily. He and Toushiro were used to Ichigo's and Renji's constant wrestling but the rest of the girls in the room were staring at the duo with confused and amused expressions.

"Toushiro, are those two always like that?" Tatsuki asked carefully. Toushiro sighed and nodded.

Orihime, the only person still in the closet stood up and stepped out when she recognized her friend's voice.

"TATSUKI!" she exclaimed and grabbed the shorter girl into a tight hug. Surprise crossed Tatsuki's face before it was replaced by happiness.

"Hime! You were here! How did you get away too?" she asked from her friend. She was sniffling with tears in the corners of her eyes.

"Karin helped me out. What are you doing here? You'll get caught. Oh, Rukia, you too!" Orihime noticed. The shortest girl waved with a big smile.

"Hi there Orihime. We're helping these two idiots in their rescue operations. Everyone knows they would never succeed without us", she said. An annoyed 'hey' came from the floor where Ichigo and Renji were rolling around.

"So you're Orihime. Tatsuki told you're a close friend to her. My name is Toushiro and the red-haired idiot on the floor is Renji", Toushiro introduced himself politely. Renji didn't probably hear his name-calling.

"Hey, you're the kid Karin told me about! I'm Orihime!" she said and grabbed Toushiro's hand to shake it furiously. Toushiro looked at her a bit wierded out but it was replaced with a small smile.

"Toushiro, who are these people and how did you find them?" Karin asked looking at Rukia and Tatsuki warily. Probably the only thing aside from fighting she had learned was not to trust new people easily.

"These are Tatsuki and Rukia. Both are fighting against the kingdom on their own and they agreed to help us", Toushiro said. Karin relaxed and smiled.

"I'm Karin but I guess you already knew that", she said smiling. "You have the same name as our village's pet rabbit", she continued to Rukia. She smiled.

"I think I'm the reason it's named so", she said. Karin cocked her head questioningly.

"It's a long story, I'll explain later", Rukia promised waving her hand. It really wasn't the best place and time for chit chat.

"Okay, but I'll be waiting to hear it", Karin agreed. "Oi, you two, KNOCK IT OUT! We need to move", she yelled over her shoulder to Ichigo and Renji. The red-head had managed to pin Ichigo down and was holding his arms with both of his arms. Ichigo was just getting ready to kick Renji with his knee.

They both stopped squirming around and looked at Karin. Usually she didn't act like a leader, or command anyone, but sometimes she just did like she had seen her father did so many times.

"Rukia!" Ichigo noticed when he lifted his eyes. The purple eyed girl smirked.

"Hi there Strawberry. Missed me?" she asked. Ichigo's jaw was practically hanging open. Karin's expression wasn't different.

"This is part of the long story, I'll explain it", Rukia said to Karin and she nodded, glancing at Ichigo from the corner of her eye, raising an eyebrow. Ichigo didn't even notice it.

"Are you alright Karin? I mean, I saw you fall of the wagon once but we had no way to help you back then", Toushiro said glancing Karin up and down worriedly. She smiled at him.

"I'm fine, don't worry. Orihime is an exceptionally good healer", she said and smiled at the caramel-headed girl who smiled back warmly.

"Tell me what has happened while you two have been here", Toushiro commanded, still not quite believing. Karin sighed.

"I'll tell you as we move out of here. This is not the safest place in the world", she said and Toushiro nodded. Everyone expect Ichigo and Renji moved quickly towards the exit. The duo was having some trouble in getting up without dripping to each other.

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_dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dundun dun dundundun dun dun dun dun dun dun dundun dundun, BOOM, dundun dundun dundun, BEEP, dun dun dun dun dun_

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**I'm sorry the update took so long, but I have lots of school work. So try to understand. **

**But hey, good news for me! I got a summer job. Which means I'll have even less time to write stories during summer. Well, I'll try to finish Three things before the vacation and I'm sure this won't be as long as it is. And at least I won't have school work during summer which means I have more time to write :D.**

**Song quote: Sandstorm by Darude**

**Big hug to everyone and remember to review! **

**Good night! **

**~Vilu**


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